


Reversed Polarity

by Feral_Fic_Writer



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: (sort of), ABO Sex, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Animal Death, Bathing/Washing, Breeding, Dehumanization, Domestic Fluff, Fertility Issues, Hand Feeding, Hunters & Hunting, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Knotting, M/M, Master/Pet, Mind Break, Mind Meld, Nesting, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Ramsay Bolton is His Own Warning, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Abuse, Sickfic, Small Penis, mentions of amputation, usually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:21:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28892031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feral_Fic_Writer/pseuds/Feral_Fic_Writer
Summary: Ramsay's an alpha with particular proclivities, until he's (k)not.
Relationships: Ramsay Bolton/Reek, Ramsay Bolton/Theon Greyjoy, Ramsay Bolton/Theon Greyjoy/Reek
Comments: 105
Kudos: 119





	1. Wake Up Call

**Author's Note:**

  * For [malevolent_muse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/malevolent_muse/gifts).



> It is easy to be mean to Theon/Reek but how does one deal out meanness to Ramsay? 
> 
> This is the answer I came up with and to me it's perfect because Ramsay suffers, Reek gets sweetness, and I get to fuck with ABO tropes.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ramsay wakes up to find his fuckpet has fallen ill.

Ramsay rolled over, looked at the clock, and scowled. He'd overslept. 

In the month since he’d bought him, without fail, Reek woke him with his whimpered pleas to piss promptly at 6:30. An annoyance initially, eventually realizing those little pained sounds were the more charming of his alarms, he’d now come to depend on it.

Curious about this lapse in his normally prompt pet, Ramsay rose and padded over to Reek's covered kennel box at the back of the bedroom.

_Maybe he'd had an accident and was cowering?_

Ramsay grinned: starting the morning with a punishment was always fun.

However, no nervous noises emanated from Reek's crate. Not even a single soft shuffle. He pulled back the tarp. His nostrils flared at the smell that escaped from beneath the canvas and drifted into the room. He’d come to rather relish Reek’s useless omega pungency. It seemed a bit heavier this morning, however. 

Although it had been a “few” days since he’d bathed him.

Inside his crate Reek laid curled up, still sleeping on his side, the movement of dreams visible beneath his eyelids. Frowning, Ramsay knelt and opened the cage door. His most recent fuckpet’s thin sides fluttered more rapidly than usual and his normally pale cheeks were flushed.

The defective omega had already been frail from hard use when purchased and Ramsay knew he hadn't been particularly easy on him either since he'd brought him home. Unable to pass up a bargain, however, he’d hoped Reek was stronger than he appeared. Unfortunately, it looked this morning like he might not even last as long as the others had.

"And of course you'd get sick now." He growled.

Reek had just passed the seller's warranty last week and the final return cutoff expired four days ago.

"Reek."

Reek was lost in another nightmare where he was still Theon. It was the day the family maester classified him "unfit" and his alpha father ordered him brothel-bound. Then he heard the distant call of his newest master. For a moment his drowsy mind wondered if it was real. These days it was sometimes hard for him to tell where his bad dreams ended and his waking life began.

He blinked his eyes open and shot wide awake at the sight of Ramsay kneeling at his open kennel door. 

Hurrying to be of whatever use was needed of him, he rolled over and pushed himself up. No easy thing to do, stiff as his broken body was after a night in his box. Up on calloused knees, suddenly dizzy, he swayed a bit. His forehead creased against the ache in his temples and he met his master with a questioning whine.

"It's almost eight. You didn't wake me up, Reek."

Was he supposed to? Usually Ramsay got after him for being unable to stay quiet.

Shame gripped Reek that he’d managed to fail to be good somehow, even though he’d been unconscious. He knew too if he didn't keep his new alpha pleased he’d be sent back to another omega house or, worse, Ramsay might simply choose to end him. And while death as a destination no longer frightened, the particular route to get there still did. Especially where this master was concerned.

He shuffled forward and timidly stroked the back of Ramsay's hand in apology with his own stub-fingered one. When it wasn't pulled away, he lifted Ramsay's hand to his lips and kissed it with the little tongue presses the alpha seemed to like.

Reek's voice was hoarse and his throat ached when he spoke. 

"Bad, Reek. Sorry. Sorry, Sir." 

He braced for the inevitable slap. But Ramsay didn’t hit him. He didn’t scold or taunt either. Instead, he slowly pulled his hand away, pressed the back of deliciously cool fingers to his forehead, and hummed.

“How are you, Reek?”

The query stunned. It wasn’t a question for a fuckpet at all. Not like, “potty?” or “treat?” 

Worried it was a trick, Reek started to shake. 

“Reek? Answer me."

Ah, now he’d done it. Made his master repeat himself. Reek whimpered and fear seized him. Suddenly, he felt like he really needed to pee even more than he had on waking. He tried to put into words an answer to Ramsay’s question but his thoughts were even more tumbled than usual. 

“How?... Reek’s sorry? Sleep Reek. Weak Reek. Sorry?” Tears came exceedingly easy to him this morning. 

“Please? Wanna be good, Sir.

“Sweet Reek?” 

It was important Ramsay knew he would do better. And it was a promise he would be a good pet for the rest of the day. The very best. Especially since he’d learned so well what happened to bad ones.

Had he answered the question right?

Beneath his hand, Ramsay felt Reek tremor and wondered if it was caused by fear or what was clearly some sort of fever. Either way, he was obviously overwhelmed. Not that it took much to do so. 

He hummed and slid his hand down to cup Reek’s flushed face. He brushed a thumb over an overly warm, tear-wet cheekbone and watched his pet wince at the tender touch. This apprehension should have delighted him but there was something in Reek’s fear-bright eyes this morning that called Ramsay into uncomfortable mercy.

“Alright, Reek. This once, I’ll give you a pass.” 

Reek was so grateful, he nipped carefully at his thumb and pulled it into his mouth to suckle. The scent of gratitude that wafted off of him normally agitated but right now it just made Ramsay feel like he might sneeze.

“Okay now. Let’s not go overboard.” He scolded though nowhere near as fiercely as he'd intended. Brow creasing he pulled away and stood. 

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up. You're living up to your name a little too well this morning." 

Mean teases were one of his specialties, something he loved deploying to make his pets cry. However, Ramsay’s chest tightened uneasily when Reek dropped his head in apology, uttering "Sorry, reeky Reek", shame blushing already hectic cheeks. After all, it wasn't Reek's fault, really. He was the one who'd denied his pet baths lately.

With a soft growl of annoyance, more at himself than his pet, Ramsay turned and strode to the bathroom. Reek crawled out of his box following unsteadily after him. 

* * *

Fresh from his morning scrubbing Reek knelt shivering on his grooming mat while Ramsay dried him. 

Reek knew something was wrong with him, well, more than usual, and it scared him. He was woozy, body shaky, his head pounded. And all his tender places ached far more fiercely then they had for quite a while. Which was saying something.

Tears welled in his eyes. How was he going to be the good pet he promised? Do all his fuckpet chores like he was supposed to when everything felt so off? To make matters worse, Ramsay had been unusually gentle with him this morning. 

And now he was going to show his appreciation for this by disappointing?

Reek dropped his head, sniffling.

While drying Reek, Ramsay had been quietly examining him. Noting every bruise and cut, tracing new wounds and old scars on the lookout for infection. He’d even used a speculum to hold Reek open after his morning clean out to make sure he hadn’t torn from one of his most recent fuckings. Unusually glossy and a healthy purple-pink on his insides, modified and marked to meet his alphic fancies on the outside… Given Reek’s overall condition, everything looked as good as it could.

Unfortunately, Reek’s glassy eyes and the heat radiating off his skin through the towel right now told a different story. Ramsay's frown deepened when Reek shivered and began to softly cry.

Not inclined to spoil his pets, still he left Reek sitting on his mat with the damp towel around his shoulders to procure some acetaminophen and a glass of water. Ramsay assured himself it was only because he was to be the author of Reek’s fate, not some invisible bug.

“Open, Reek.” Ramsay ordered as he squatted down in front of him. 

So well trained, Reek compiled without question. Pills placed on his tongue, he swallowed them down with water from the cup held for him. Ramsay watched him drink, slurping awkwardly. Collared throat bobbing, unused to a cup, water ran down his chin. It was “cute” in a pathetic sort of way Ramsay found strangely stirring.

He pulled the near-empty cup away.

“Messy thing.”

Large feverish eyes stared up at him worriedly. Reek wiped at his wet chin with the back of a mangled hand.

“Sorry. Sorry.”

Ramsay silently acknowledged the apology with a rough tousle of his head before standing.

Reek followed Ramsay out of the bathroom in a daze. His Master was acting so oddly this morning and it scared him even more than how awful he felt. 

“Come here, Reek.”

Seeing Ramsay standing beside his big bed, the tight tangle in Reek’s belly loosened a bit. 

He was going to get fucked. 

At least this was normal. Hopefully the rough use of his mouth or ass would put everything right again. 

Swaying a little drunkenly he crawled over. The throb at his temples had increased and a fresh wave of dizziness rolled over him. It made his tummy uneasy. Strong hands grabbed him, not too hard, and pulled him up onto the mattress.

Reek flopped over without hesitation, grateful for the solidity of the soft cushion beneath him. The sheets were cool and smelled heavily of Ramsay. Dark, spicy, and with a hint of copper, normally the scent made his anxiety spike, but today it soothed. Not questioning this shift, he buried his nose into the crisp linens, rolled over onto his stomach, and reflexively assumed the “presenting” position. 

He was glad for this part of his day: all he had to do to be good was be still and relatively quiet. Weary and weak as he felt right now, that wouldn’t be too difficult - depending on how much his master wanted to hurt him. He closed his eyes and waited for what was to come.

Ramsay stared down on his pet. Flushed skin against white sheets. Lit by the morning’s glow bruises in a variety of tints dappled Reek’s skin in sickly pastels. His back was corseted by the pink laces of lash scars. Even without his pet's puffy, rouged hole, this sight alone made him hard and ready to plunder. 

Usually.

Wearing a confused expression, Ramsay gripped his big alpha cock through his pajama bottoms and squeezed. 

Nothing.

Pulling his bottoms down, Ramsay stared at his dick. Normally rabid, it lay in the thatch of his pubes taunting him with its softness. A fear he’d never experienced before filled him. Ramsay pushed this away.

“Should be a quick fix...” he assured himself.

His first impulse was to have Reek get busy with his mouth but a sudden thought made him pause. His pet was skilled, but how would it impact their dynamic if that somehow failed to work? No, he decided, he would not risk being diminished in front of something as low an infertile omega.

“Stay, Reek.” 

The order wasn’t really necessary, Reek knew far better than to break position.

Ramsay grabbed a bottle of lube from the nightstand. Since Reek rarely made enough slick for either of their comfort, he squirted a bit into his palm and went to work. As he jerked himself, Ramsay studied Reek, so still in his submission. Ass up, skinny legs splayed. His soft, docked cock rendered so little it was completely hidden behind his petite omega sac.

Still nothing.

Even the pinked prints of his hand still left from last night’s spanking didn’t elicit a twitch in his dick. Worse than this, Ramsay realized it disturbed him. And this was a _completely_ foreign feeling.

He dropped his cock and set his slick hand on Reek’s bruised ass. Reek squeaked and started but quickly settled down again. The skin under Ramsay’s palm was burning to the touch.

Though he’d never hesitated before, he suddenly wondered if ravishing Reek while he was unwell was the best course of action. Not that, in his current flaccid state, any ravishing was immediately imminent. He glanced over at the nightstand again, this time his eyes not drawn to the lube but liniment.

Tucking himself away and wiping his hands on a pantleg, Ramsay picked up the tube and studied it curiously.

Tense, Reek wasn’t sure what was going on. Usually Ramsay was in him mere seconds after he presented. It was another of the morning’s oddities. Truth be told, the way he felt, so hot and so tired, he had almost fallen asleep waiting for his master’s cock, so the hand on his bottom startled him. 

It left a moment later. Ashamed of his reaction and sure of the violence to follow, Reek shut his eyes tight and buried his face in the bedclothes, readying for the blows. Then his master’s touch returned and…

OH.

What was this?

Reek’s eyes popped blearily open. Something cool was rubbed onto the tender, bruised flesh of his ass. It soothed as it warmed. Then the hand moved, massaging, leaving only to return with more of the wonderful substance. It felt amazing, until… 

Reek stiffened and tried not to yelp when probing fingertips grazed a particularly sore spot on his left hip.

“Too hard?”

It was all Reek could do not to turn around and stare at Ramsay in wonder. It was a question no alpha had ever asked and one he’d certainly never expected from this one. Fear gripped him and made him shiver. It had to be a trick.

“Weak Reek? Sorry,” he apologized, hoping this would placate although he had little confidence it actually would.

Ramsay was beginning to think he might actually be ill himself. Reek’s fear scent, always so previously intoxicating, had suddenly made his stomach lurch unhappily. And his hands, so used to rough gripping and fierce slaps were, like his cock, more content this morning to be soft. 

As if to underscore this, hearing Reek’s fragile petition, he unconsciously lightened the pressure on pale skin marred by the purpled impressions of fingertips. 

Caught in his own sort of fugue, Ramsay then gripped Reek’s ankles and pulled his pet’s legs backward, out of presenting position, and flat onto his belly before climbing onto the mattress alongside him. Kneeling next to Reek, he resumed his salved rubbings, mapping out every sore spot, slowly solving every tissue-tied knot. 

His nostrils flared as a light omega pleasure scent entwined with omega fear. It took several minutes for Ramsay to recognize it for what it was. A few more for him to understand that he liked it.

Under his fingers Reek was having a similar experience. 

This was… This was… 

Reek realized he didn’t hold any words for it. It felt so good. Like nothing he’d ever experienced. He wanted to hold onto his apprehension knowing Ramsay could shift back into his usual meanness at any moment, but every new touch was somehow melting him more.

He gave a little sad hiccup, wishing he could die right here now. To go out on such gentle tending…

“Reek?”

A firm but not unkind grip settled on his shoulder and rolled him over onto his back. Reek closed his eyes and tipped his head back submissively baring his collared neck.

There were strange new notes in Reek’s suddenly potent fear scent and they made Ramsay growl. But not in the pleased way he normally would. He stretched out alongside Reek, surveying his pet’s surrender. The way Reek’s eyes were so tightly shut, the hummingbird flutters of his breaths. This didn’t thrill him like it should either.

Reek’s pounding pulse was visible in his neck above his collar. Ramsay’s stroked it making soft shushing sounds at Reek’s whimpers. Fingers pressed along the base of Reek’s jaw. His tonsils were swollen. 

Drifting lower, he saw Reek’s fever had plumped his normally anemic bonding gland too. Enough, in fact, his collar pressed into it. It looked chafed and uncomfortable.

Before Ramsay fully realized what he was doing, his fingers were on the buckle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	2. A Shift in Consciouness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whatever is wrong with Ramsay's fuckpet might be contagious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, User24601 for leaving a comment on the first chapter. I hope you will return to it.
> 
> My appreciation also to shadowdancer23, yourwastedspace, BloodyLollipop, Cookiegrill, TheNymphNagisa, knightjar, Philosopherscribe, User24601, cat_bot, Orokana_Kitsyne, and Yusoma, as well as the other readers who were kind enough to leave kudos.
> 
> Yourwastedspace, I was delighted to see you among the kudos. If you are still reading, it was your fics from years back that helped shape this incarnation of Reek. Thank you for the inspiration.

Reek froze, stiff as a board at the loosening of his collar. His eyes shot wide open at the slide of leather against his skin when it was pulled away, his neck completely bared for the first time in years. 

Ramsay laid propped on an elbow staring down at him. Reek tried to drop his eyes as he should but their gazes locked and he found he couldn’t. His master’s expression was so different from any he’d seen since he’d been purchased, not hard and cruel but stunned and searching. 

Reek was terrified by it. 

“Sorry. Sorry…” He apologized, tears filling his eyes as Ramsay’s kept him pinned. “Weak Reek. Meek Reek. Sorry, Sir.”

“Shhhhh” a finger was pressed to his lips and a growled “Sweet Reek” followed.

Reek knew he shouldn’t question, but disbelief made him reckless. “Sweet Reek?”

His master leaned down and nosed into his hair, sniffing. “Sweet Reek'' Ramsay rumbled again into his ear, his tone free of any meanness or teasing. 

The two word praise opened a whole new powerful ache in him and Reek started crying in earnest. 

His chest hitched on a particularly harsh sob when gentle fingers brushed his bonding gland. An underdeveloped, broken omega, heatless, he’d never felt it so tender and tight.

At Ramsay’s touch it began throbbing and a flash of something warm and wonderful coursed through his body. It went straight to his tiny trimmed cock. The two points pulsed in unison with his pounding heart.

In the whole of Ramsay’s twisted life, with all the tortures he'd visited on his fuckpets, the anguished hope on Reek's face the first time he called him "sweet" without malice… The desperation in his tear-filled eyes was the stuff of his darkest, wettest dreams.

And yet… 

Rather than revel in it, suddenly convicted by the infinite rawness in Reek’s watery green gaze, his head dipped. Unable to deal with the terrible surge of emotion he snuffled into his pet’s hair in a way that felt oddly _submissive_. 

Nose buried in damp curls, the light, fresh scent of Reek, newly washed, was sweet in a way he’d never noticed before.

“Sweet Reek,” he murmured again, unable to stop himself.

Caught up in such strange stirrings Ramsay pulled back to study his fuckpet anew. Without a collar the omega had never looked so naked. There was a pureness and a vulnerability in the bareness of Reek’s unclaimed neck.

Another soft growl escaped him when, for the first time that morning, his cock twitched in interest. Ignoring this he stroked soft throat skin again brushing over the bright red brand of Reek’s bonding gland. The breathy gasp it elicited was marvelous. 

Ramsay’s hand moved down his pet’s body and his gaze followed. Oddly unsettled by all the marks he’d so carefully inscribed on pale skin that normally he’d find so pleasing, he focused, instead, on Reek’s still intact little tits. 

His tight pecs were flushed pink with his fever. His nipples were peaked and puffy like they’d just been meanly pinched. Ramsay licked a fingertip and touched a pointy tip. The feather-light caress made Reek’s back arch up off the mattress beautifully.

“Please, please... Reek’s a good boy, Sir. Please…”

Ramsay had lost count of the times such a beg had fallen from Reek’s mouth. But never had it sounded the way it did now, stripped of fear and pain and dripping with wanton urgency. 

He couldn’t help himself. He shifted down and pressed a kiss just outside the rouged disk of a nipple. Hot skin beneath his lips, needy whines hovered in an increasing flock above him.

Despite his illness, Reek didn’t taste sickly. The flavor that burst on Ramsay’s tongue when he licked the inflamed bud was deliciously honeyed. He held Reek down, ears drinking in his pet’s squeaks, gasps, and whines as he suckled, first one nipple than the other.

Another scent suddenly spiked the air and Ramsay’s head shot up. Tracking it, he gazed down just in time to see a fresh spurt of slick surge from the plump tip of Reek’s modified cock. Blushed deep-red, he had never seen it so blood-plumped. It poked straight up, jerking every now and again as it drooled. Normally bone-dry Reek’s shaft was slick with its drippings. There was so much of it, it gathered in glossy drops at its base on Reek’s hairless groin.

In his life whole life Reek had never experienced something like this. The first touch of his master’s wet fingertip to his nipple sparked a jolt of electricity straight into all his bitch parts. Pinned immediately after by Ramsay’s powerful arms, he’d tried to lay quiet, waiting for the awful tear of teeth to his flesh. 

But what happened instead... No alpha ever paid his milkless tits such enjoyable attention. There were no hard slaps, vicious pinches or twisting. His already dizzy head spun faster at each glorious press of tongue, the light teasing soft graze of teeth alternating between soft and firm sucks.

And then.

Ramsay left off his thrilled, aching chest. Reek held his breath as his master's too often terrible mouth moved lower with nipping kisses and licks. Damaged hands flew to his own broken-toothed mouth to stifle a frightened squeal when Ramsay’s tongue licked the sensitive head of his stubbed cock and suddenly engulfed him.

Ramsay had not previously deigned to use his mouth on an omega’s bitch clit before always thinking that sort of thing shameful and unalpha-ish. Besides, his pets were there for his pleasure, not he for theirs. No, the only time he’d paid any mind to an omega’s cock was to demean or cause pain. The same with omegas' slick sacs.

But the sounds Reek made, the taste of him, the increasingly potent scent he gave off as Ramsay sucked his fat little stub… He’d never known such a heady combination. And the way Reek’s small pleasure-swollen balls filled his mouth when he traded one for the other.

The feel of them on his tongue was perfect.

He seized skinny thighs, lifted and pressed them back, drunk on a new kind of power as Reek writhed. His nostrils flared when he spread Reek open. His pet’s cunt had never been so wet.

Reek’s blushed, puffy hole pulsed open and closed like it was literally gasping for a fat alpha cock to fill it. Ramsay slid two fingers easily in and watched Reek’s asshole clamp around them, muscles sucking him greedily.

“Please, Sir,” Reek cried above him. “Leak Reek. Need Reek. Reek’s a good boy. Please.”

Reek’s words were so pretty and plaintive and Ramsay's cock had not only awoken at last, but it was so hard it hurt. Given this, rather than punish Reek for speaking out of turn, Ramsay found he couldn’t deny him.

When his trembling legs were released, Reek tried to roll over onto his belly and get his ass in the air again. It wasn’t asked for, but his limbs moved on their own accord. He chirped in surprise and started to cry again when Ramsay caught him, wrapped his arms around his middle, and turned him on his side.

Of course! This was some new punishment. He knew it had to be from the start: his master whipping him up into this terrible state of wanting he’d never known before, only to most cruelly tease him by leaving him aching and empty.

“Oh…”

Reek’s eyes rolled back into his head when Ramsay’s plump cockhead nudged at his entrance. The moment it breached him some of the terrible ache he'd woken with eased.

“Please,” he pleaded, rocking his hips eagerly back. “Need Reek. Breed Reek…”

He groaned in gratitude for his master’s mercy when Ramsay’s broad chest pressed against his back, arms gripping him tighter, and his thick alpha dick, fatter than Reek could ever remember it, slid wetly into him.

Ramsay had only taken Reek in traditional presenting position before. Infertile omegas unable to fill their function were generally regarded on the same level as animals. Unable to bear or bond, they were considered discardable by the larger society, that was why, given his particular proclivities, he kept them. And, as far as he was concerned, a useless pet should be fucked like the bitch it was.

But this…

Stretched out side by side, sheathing himself in Reek’s slick hole, his face buried in the nape of Reek’s collarless neck. No previous mounting had ever been as satisfying.

“Hush... “ He said not unkindly as Reek whined at the stretch. “Sweet Reek… Alpha’s going to feed you. Fill your belly up with my seed.”

Within his arms, Reek’s hot, sweat-slicked frame trembled. Reek pulled his hand up from where it palmed his heaving chest and sucked one of Ramsay’s fingers into his mouth in an offering of silent thanks.

In reply, Ramsay added another finger and fucked these gently over the wet velvet of Reek’s tongue in the same cadence as his hips. The wet. slick, heat of his pet... The sensation of Reek rocking his ass back to meet his thrusts…

As many times as he’d fucked Reek, or fucked any omega for that matter, it had never once been like this.

It was bliss.

Dipping his head, Ramsay mouthed Reek’s neck. He sucked at his bonding gland, swollen so tight now it looked almost blistered. 

His mouth froze and his hips stuttered when the fragile body held in his arms took up a different tremor. Reek made a strange sound. It took a moment listening over the noise of his own labored breaths before Ramsay finally realized Reek was purring.

Screams, cries, whimpers, whines, groans, moans, ragged gasps, and begs - over his years of pet owning he had collected these in abundance. But a purr?

This was a first. 

He’d always thought alphic ruminations in songs and books about the effect of a pleased omega’s purr were overly-romantic pap. So, uninterested in ever procuring such a noise, he was completely unprepared for the effect Reek’s small, satisfied rumblings had on him. 

His thrusts picked up, Reek’s receptive cunt met and milked him in a way unlike any other. Ramsay’s knot surged forward with such force it had black spots dancing in his vision. Reek keened around his fingers and thrashed a bit on instinct when his insides were flooded and he was stretched on the fattest knot Ramsay have ever bestowed.

At Reek’s fluttering, something within Ramsay panicked that his omega might slip off and get away from him. He gripped him tighter, his knot locked, and his mouth clamped down on Reek's bonding gland all at the same moment.

An elixir of blood and omega chemicals burst on Ramsay’s tongue. Reek, wailed and then suddenly fell silent save for his unbroken purring.

“Oh fuck!”

Ramsay gasped as, in a rush, his pet's consciousness merged with his own through their bond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	3. Unfortunate Attachments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ramsay suffers his own fever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My thanks to User64201 and TurkishDelite for your lovely comments. They encourage me so much to continue.
> 
> And my appreciation to all the other folks out there who left a kudo on this little thought experiment.

Reek lay in his master’s arms panting, his body awash in an extraordinary aching pleasure.

Being taken this time by Ramsay was unlike any fuck he’d ever had. 

Clasped close to a wonderfully cooler body, a broad chest pressed to his tender back, held tight but not meanly, the way Ramsay’s thick alpha cock stretched him was not punishing but glorious.

It slid slowly in and out of his ass teasingly, the pulse of it almost languid. 

So far from the bruising brutal poundings he was used to the friction was warm and easy, gliding on the slide of his own fluids for once without any of the awful stickiness of the false slick he was normally filled with.

Then his body tremored.

Until he recognized it for what it was, Reek’s first fresh purr since he was a pup frightened him when it vibrated his heaving chest.

Nervously suckling his master’s fingers, he fervently hoped Ramsay didn’t take his low rumblings for a growl. But the alpha’s continued soft laving and worrying of his throbbing bonding gland allayed his fears.

When Ramsay’s knot finally formed inside him, it was the fullest Reek had ever felt. The stretch of it urged him into disobedience and for a brief moment he struggled to get away before he burst.

But his master knew his limits far better than he, and gripped him tighter, holding him in place. And when the knot finally locked them together he was rewarded for his resumed submission with a sensation like no other he’d known. 

His stubbed cock spasmed and for the first time in his entire life Reek came on an alpha master’s knotted rod like a “real” omega would.

Overwhelmed, he sobbed loudly at the glorious relief of it.

What’s more, the flush of Ramsay’s hot seed flooded his womb like some magical elixir. Immediately a dozen or more of his aches were stifled and his head spun not with dizzying sickness but a marvelous quiet.

Drunk on the cessation of so many pains at once, Reek was caught by surprise when his master’s mouth settled again suddenly far more harshly over his bonding gland. The snap of teeth and the sear of its puncture sent him shrieking back into sobriety.

But then…

Something astounding happened.

In his chest there was the feeling like... Like someone had just wrapped a warm blanket around his heart. And his broken mind felt the oddest of tuggings: dozens of soft invisible fingers smoothing the jagged fragments of his consciousness.

“Heavenly” was the only word Reek found he still retained that seemed apt enough to describe it.

He allowed himself to drift here, unaware that locked together, behind him his master cursed, stilled, and suddenly began to sob.

* * *

Reek was not the only defective creature in Ramsay’s household. Cold, cruel, even as a child from the time he was a wee pup Ramsay understood, without a doubt, he was defective in his own way. 

Absent alpha sire, incapacitated omega dam, a quirk of genetics: he’d long ago stopped questioning the cause, understanding only that for as long as he’d lived, he had never truly felt an attachment to anything.

Well, except perhaps his own twisted pleasure.

Until now.

Knot-locked, Reek’s womb heavily seeded, the moment his teeth punctured Reek’s gland and his fuckpet’s flavors spilled onto his tongue, the bond Ramsay had so carefully avoided since his earliest adolescent rut found him.

And for the very first time in his life, Ramsay Bolton knew what it was to be attached to someone.

Truly. Soulfully. Attached.

It was the most awful, terrifying thing he’d ever experienced.

“Oh, fuck!” he gasped out again. “God Dammit! Fuck!”

He loosened his hold on Reek and attempted to pull out. Crushed under the weight of the bond, he tried to physically extricate himself from the grip of their biologically cemented connection.

Locked as they were, at the tug Reek squealed.

“Please, please, no!” Reek begged and piteously reminded, “Sweet Reek! Sweet Reek! Meek Reek! Please! Hurts! 

“Hurts, Sir!”

Ramsay stopped and with a ragged gasp gathered his weeping pet in his arms again. Not so much driven by the words, but with their new tie Reek’s mind was tangled with his own now and he felt the horrible acuity of Reek’s fear and the pain in his cunt at the pull of the knot. 

It was excruciating.

“Oh, God.” 

Ramsay wept too. 

Lust, anger, envy, malice, self-absorbed pleasure: for almost three decades these had been the base scope of his experience. 

Nothing. 

Nothing in his life had prepared him for the onslaught of the completely new feelings flooding him in this fresh bond with Reek.

He was furious.

Or at least he wanted to be. 

But Reek’s pain and his terror were so pure. Sharper than any blade he owned. And it wasn’t just his present sensations. 

Suddenly, Ramsay was bombarded with dozens of triggered memories Reek’s shattered brain aligned with the current moment and he was run through a lifetime of violations and tortures seen, not through his eyes, but from his pet’s perspective.

His breath left him. 

His heart pounded like a jackrabbit’s. 

It would only take moments, Ramsay feared, before this instant and unwanted empathy drove him mad. 

Sick with his new understanding, instinctively his nose was pulled back to Reek’s neck and the trace scent of omega pleasure that lingered strongest there. 

His tongue flickered out of its own accord, animal alpha impulses leading it to lap at the halo of bloody punctures surrounding Reek’s purpled bonding gland. Potent omega chemicals present in still-dewing teeth marks and drying blood slowed his mind’s whirling.

Mercifully, once Ramsay stilled again, under the balm of his tending tongue, Reek settled too. Full of cock and flush with seed, his altered gland salved by the soothing, natural cocktail contained in alpha saliva, it wasn’t long before Reek’s peaceful pleasure returned to him along with his fragile purr.

“Sleep Reek?” Reek asked timidly peppering the fingertips that had slipped from his mouth with petitioning kisses.

“Fuck, yes…” Ramsay all but begged, “Go to sleep, Reek. Please!”

Damn, but the strength of Reek’s immediate gratitude humbled. The potency of it would’ve knocked Ramsay to his knees had he been upright, particularly given the circumstances: sick, wounded, enslaved, stuck on the knot of an alpha who’d hurt him horribly. 

And yet so incredibly fucking grateful to be allowed something as simple as sleep.

Willfully blind to this before Ramsay saw it all now with a clarity that made him want to cut his metaphorical eyes out. 

“Sweet Reek,” he groaned into Reek’s collarless neck. 

The sudden burst of happy scent the two words elicited and the relief it brought made Ramsay realize, horrified, that this might be the only immediate antidote for the poisoned rot of his soul and his mind’s new madness.

Thankfully, the terrible tightness in his chest eased as Reek slipped into a satisfied sleep. Unfortunately, Reek’s soon following soft snores didn’t completely signal Ramsay’s full relief.

He ground his teeth together, still aware of all the pains that plagued his poor pet’s body even in its sleep. And the sharpness twisted up in Reek’s shrunken stomach too. 

Hurt limbs and hungry bellies made for more docile fuckpets he’d always believed. But there was no way he would be able to function with these awarenesses of ache and emptiness eating at him.

As soon as his knot deflated enough Ramsay pulled out. 

Reek whimpered in his sleep at the loss. Ramsay picked out a plug from a drawer in his night stand and carefully slid it in, not even pausing to admire the marvelously large gape his knot had wrought to Reek’s cunt.

Perplexed, unable to help himself, he shifted his mate’s sleeping body away from the cooling mess of sheets soiled with seed and slick and tucked him up beneath the bed’s thick comforter.

He’d just finished this when it struck him. Ramsay’s hand’s flew to his brow at the blow.

He had called Reek “mate” in his mind.

Not _omega, bitch, pet, fuckpet, toy, whore…._

_Mate._

“Oh, holy hell” He growled.

Fists clenched, he paced furiously around the room. The severity of his situation sinking in more fully with each tick of the clock.

“How the fuck did this happen!” 

Again, he’d checked and double checked Reek’s papers as he had every omega fuckpet’s he’d purchased. Reek had never had a heat in his life. His bonding gland had been certified defunct. Had the brothel he’d purchased Reek from somehow lied to him?

Striding back over to the bed, a hand to Reek’s forehead let Ramsay know his fever had dropped but was still present.

But was it actually a heat? If so, why wasn't the room awash in thicker scent and his cock seemingly, unusually, in no hurry to immediately rise once more already? And why was Reek asleep and not wailing for another knot?

Ramsay rubbed at the ache in his temples, unused to his head feeling so crowded.

Regardless of the mystery, something irreconcilably unfortunate had happened.

Storming into the bathroom he caught his reflection in the mirror. Wild-eyed and wrecked looking, his gaze was haunted.

Just like Reek's.

Almost.

Unable to bear the resemblance he splashed some water on his face and focused on his breathing.

“There must be some way to undo this.” _There had to be._

He moved to the bathroom window and checked the latch to make sure it was secure. He returned to the bedroom. Mind racing for options, he was checking the latch on the window there too when it hit him what he was doing.

His head dropped and he pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Oh, god.”

The protective instincts of a newly-bonded alpha over a vulnerable omega mate had served as comedic fodder for centuries. Ramsay couldn’t begin to count the times he’d laughed at the stupidity of such antics in a movie or sit-com, convinced such depictions had to be ridiculous exaggerations.

And now?

His mind surged with the frantic need to check every window and door of the farmhouse to make sure no one could get in and steal Reek away.

Or hurt him.

The irony of being assaulted by such fears when it was him who posed Reek's greatest danger was not lost on Ramsay.

The fury at his shifted circumstances was so pure, he trembled. He strode back over to the bed where Reek slept.

“You sneaky bitch, you did this. You did this to me and I’m going to …”

As soon as his eyes fell on Reek again all fire fled from his limbs. 

Reek looked so small and helpless, curled up into his kennel-sized ball in a corner of the king-sized mattress. Beholding his sleeping innocence, the fever flush on his pale, sunken cheeks, the ice in Ramsay’s gaze melted.

His mind chanted “Mate” and “Mine” over and over, the intensity of the words growing stronger the longer he stared. Ramsay shook his head. Unable to dislodge the words he fled from the bedroom.

* * *

Not knowing what time it was, Reek blinked sleepy eyes open. A sudden panic gripped him when he realized he was not only alone in Ramsay’s bedroom, but he was still in his master’s bed!

His fear eased a bit when he remembered Ramsay had given him permission to sleep. Extraordinary in an of itself because normally, for him the bed was only for fucking, exile from the mattress swiftly communicated a minute after the knot popped from his cunt.

Oh, but he was tempted to linger today though, in Ramsay’s absence. 

The cushion beneath him was like a cloud and the thick comforter so warm and cozy, the stuff of nesting fantasies. He wiggled a bit, suddenly aware of the pressure of the plug in his asshole. He reached back and gave it a little nudge, hips rocking, feeling a rare pleasure at the friction and fullness.

For the second time this morning he wondered if he was awake or maybe still caught in a dream. If it was a dream, unlike his earlier nightmare, he hoped to never wake from it.

Unfortunately his ass wasn’t the only full thing. A too real pressure on his bladder made itself known. Reek heaved a soft, sad sigh and reluctantly slid out from under the shelter of the covers.

* * *

Balancing a tray piled high with eggs, juice, and jelly-loaded toast, Ramsay paused on the stair's landing to try the latch on the small window there again, even though he’d checked it a dozen times already.

“Godammit.”

He was going to have to go on the internet later and read up on bonding and just how long this shit usually lasted. He stamped up the stairs, rage building at having been drug down to the common level of his dynamic.

His fury evaporated, however, when he saw the empty bed. No matter he felt Reek nearby, an oily panic rose in throat.

He dropped the tray on the nightstand with a clatter.

“REEK!”

His heart only resumed beating when Reek skittered wide-eyed out of the bathroom and crawled quickly over to stop at his feet.

Reek was flushed with fear, his lean sides panting.

“Sorry. Sorry, Sir!” he whimpered.

“Leaky Reek” he offered in apology, motioning with missing fingers to his stub were a jewel of piss still clung to his tip.

His terror hit Ramsay like a right hook.

 _Oh nononononono!_ His mated mind shouted.

Ramsay dropped to a crouch, his heart shredded by the way Reek shrunk in on himself and quailed at his sudden movement.

“Easy… Easy.” he soothed, reaching out slowly to sweep damp bangs off Reek’s still-fevered forehead. The scent of omega distress made him want to gag, which only made he want to retch all the more.

“You were a good boy to go potty.”

Reek opened one of his clenched eyes and stared at him wonderingly.

“Good boy?”

“Mmmmm… Yes. Reek’s a good boy. Alpha just got worried because I didn’t know where my Reek went.”

Reek’s other large green eye opened. The "my Reek" and the “good boys” opened up his scent too. It smelled like sunshine and cedar and suddenly Ramsay could breathe again.

_God but this sucks so much._

Standing, Ramsay regarded the bed where all his alpha instincts screamed Reek should be ensconced.

He'd once locked Reek in his crate for a week without release. Today, he merely looked at the soiled sheets and his nose wrinkled in offense. 

“Stay, Reek.” 

In an instant he was off and back with armloads of blankets from the spare room’s linen closet.

Bed stripped, Ramsay snapped out and tucked in fresh sheets. He piled half a dozen comforters on the bed before plucking Reek up from the floor and setting him in the middle of the pile.

He crossed his arms and watched, a peculiar irritation nipping at him when Reek remained where he been placed, glancing up at him every few moments in a cutely stupid sort of way.

“Oh, for god’s sake!” Ramsay threw up his hands, instantly regretting the way it made Reek cower. He untied the knots from his tone. 

“Nest.”

Reek blinked up at him, his forehead furrowed. 

“Nest, Sir?”

Ramsay reached down carefully and shook one of the blankets.

“Nest.”

It shouldn’t have hurt him so much when Reek reached out one of his hands and stroked a down comforter while regarding him timidly.

Then, finally, despite his crinkled brow, Reek began awkwardly pushing the blankets around, peering up every now and again, seeking his approval.

A weight fell from Ramsay’s chest when Reek gradually got into it.

“Yes,” he exhaled, the alpha in him experiencing a bit of relief.

Instinct taking over, Reek rumbled around and scratched in the blankets like a puppy. It was so innocently adorable and endearing, and the pleasurable warmth that filled him at the sight... Ramsay wanted to vomit.

After a bit, Reek seemed to actually forget for a few minutes that he was being watched as he industriously pushed comforters about, stopping every now and then to rub a corner of blanket along his cheek or under his jaw where his broken gland still wept, marking it.

The scent of nesting omega was like a drug to Ramsay’s stressed system. He stood there mesmerized until he finally noticed Reek had stopped moving.

Reek met his gaze for a moment before dropping his eyes away. 

“Best nest?” 

Oh, hell, Ramsay felt the tension between Reek’s hope and his fear far more than he heard it. Fuck, but his mate was one embodied ache.

“Yes. It’s a very nice nest.”

There was no mistaking the subtle rise in Reek’s shoulders at the approval.

Master architect of slumps and shrinking, Reek’s small pleased swell shouldn’t have satisfied Ramsay like it did.

Reek knelt in the middle of his nest, plucking clumsily at the blankets with his stubbed paws, clearly waiting his next order. Ramsay saw his eyes dart over to the tray of now cold food on the nightstand.

Reek winced when his stomach growled.

“Reek…”

Green eyes looked up filled with guilt, as though he should have somehow been able to control the rumblings of his empty belly.

“Uh…”

Ramsay made to climb into the nest but found he couldn’t.

He cast his mind back to what else he knew about newly bonded pairs that could help him. When he suddenly realized why he couldn’t breach the sanctity of Reek’s omega nest he wanted to break something.

“May I join you?”

It didn’t seem possible his pet's eyes could get any larger. Reek nodded but his expression was painfully curious. Ramsay couldn’t blame him, his mate… er, master had gone bonkers.

Unfortunately, the nod wasn’t enough.

“Speak, Reek.” Ramsay cajoled through gritted teeth.

“Yessir.” Reek tipped his head as if something was dawning on him. He patted the crumpled comforter next to him with his palm.

“Ramsay’s Reek?”

“Oh, thank fuck,” Ramsay sighed, purposely ignoring what Reek's possessive declaration stirred in him.

His alpha set back in motion, he was allowed to enter the nest now that he’d been given its omega maker's permission.

* * *

Watching Ramsay climb into his nest made Reek feel weirdly dizzy again.

As his master propped his back against the headboard and settled in with a sigh, Reek decided this had to be the strangest day of his omega life so far.

He hunched his shoulders when his tummy rumbled again and Ramsay growled.

“Reek, come.”

Reek shuffled over and allowed himself to be arranged sideways, his plugged bottom resting on the mattress between Ramsay’s spread legs. His skinny legs draped over one of his master’s muscular thighs. 

Reek curled up against Ramsay’s broad chest and tucked his head under his chin. When he saw his master reach for the tray of breakfast food, Reek closed his eyes, hoping Ramsay would let him stay this way and that he wouldn’t be forced to watch him eat again.

He hiccuped sadly when there was a tap on his nose and the alpha called his name.

Ah, well... His amazing luck for the day had to run out sometime.

Opening his eyes, Reek squeaked and tried to recoil, seeing a bit of jam-laden toast held so close to his lips they almost brushed it. That would have made his master crazy mad.

The grip around his bruised shoulders tightened and he was hushed.

“Eat, Reek,” Ramsay urged, pushing the bit of bread so close Reek’s senses were filled with strawberries, wheat, and honey.

Stickiness painted his lips and he cautiously opened his mouth. The flavors that burst on his tongue were so rich and sweet, Reek couldn’t help it. He dissolved into tears.

“Mother fucking bonding,” Ramsay growled above him.

His voice was so strangely hoarse Reek couldn’t help but look up.

He almost choked on the next bit of toast being fed to him when he saw the wetness of Ramsay’s eyes.

Never had he entertained the possibility tears were something this alpha was even capable of, unless they were of mirth at some pettish misery.

Blue eyes widened in shock, as if his master had suddenly read his thoughts. Only rather than rage at him, a fat drop rolled down Ramsay's cheek.

It scared Reek and he couldn't help but sniffle.

“Shhhh... “ Ramsay bent and pressed a kiss to his hot furrowed forehead as he offered him a bite of cheesy egg.

“Eat, Reek.”

His master was too complicated today for him to figure out. Obeying him, however, particularly right now when he was being offered such amazing treats, was easy enough.

Reek sighed and settled deeper against Ramsay’s bare chest, accepting every bite and sip of juice offered until his belly was full to bursting. Crushing on a jam and juice sugar coma, soon his eyes were getting too heavy-lidded to stay open.

And somewhere in the middle of his feasting he’d started purring again.

"Sleep Reek?" he mumbled.

"Yes, sweet Reek. Sleep," Ramsay mercifully granted again from above.

Exhausted, full, warm, and as comfortable as his battered body was going to get, Reek let his eyes fall shut.

He turned his face into one of Ramsay’s pecs and latched on the soft, firm swell of it with a tired nip that turned into a self-soothing suckle at the lovely flavor of his alpha’s skin.

He was so close to sleep he barely registered that beneath him, Ramsay’s chest vibrated with its own alphic purr. And he fell into a nightmare-less dream completely unaware their soft rumblings had synchronized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am having so much fun with this I would be interested in pursuing a bonus chapter or two if there was reader interest in seeing this go further.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	4. A Whole New Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ramsay is having difficulty adjusting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, let's see how this goes...

Flushed from the brush the rabbit zig-zagged over fallow ground. Mid-leap there was a crack and it crumpled. Ramsay drew upon it where it lay shrieking, spine severed by his shot. 

A week ago he would have stood there, watching, as long as it took to die. But today there was no pleasurable rush for him in the sounds of its suffering. The sight of its gasping mouth didn’t thrill. And its eyes… Its eyes… 

Ramsay didn’t see a rabbit in their wounded wildness, he only saw... 

_Reek._

Fucking bond feels were apparently contagious, infecting every aspect of him! Where was he to take his joy now? 

He reached down, grabbed his screaming prize by its scruff, and silenced it with a skilled snap of its neck. 

Ramsay added the carcass to the brace of three others he carried and then glanced at his watch. He’d only been gone a few hours but the open air's absence of Reek’s scent made him uneasy.

As he sought Reek through their tie he growled in frustration at this invisible leash. Fortunately, his mate’s… Pet’s… mind was quiet enough at the moment. Ramsay had learned already, however, his own wouldn’t remain steady if he lingered away too much longer.

“God dammit, I have to fix this somehow.” He turned and headed to the road where his SUV was parked, mind rolling over options. 

“How do people fucking live this way?”

Despite feeling so off balance still, having been away for too long, Ramsay decided to stop down at the barn on his way back to the house. His livestock manager Ben saw him coming and left Luton and Skinner to carry out the insemination of the dairy cow in the squeeze shoot.

“Well, look who decided to show up, Stranger.”

Ramsay scowled. Yes, he’d been unusually absent. But it had taken three damn days after his unfortunate incident with his fuckpet before he could even have Reek out of his sight for more than thirty minutes without losing it.

Ben peered out the wide open barn doors. Seeing the rifle strung in the SUV’s gun rack he asked, “Going hunting? Want me to grab a couple of the girls for you?”

“Already been.” 

Ramsay ignored Ben’s stunned look: he never took to the fields without a couple of the champion hunting dogs he bred accompanying him. 

“Wanted some alone time.”

A beta, Ben, didn’t inquire further, hearing the alpha growl in his tone. “Sure, Boss. I get it,” he said although his expression offered otherwise.

“Uh, hey, while you’re here, would you mind stopping by the shop?” Ben rubbed the back of his neck. “Damon wanted to talk to you about the 6120. I think he needs to special order a part or something.”

“Sure,” Ramsay sighed.

Seeing there was clearly something else on Ben’s mind, he waited.

“Oh… Uh… And...” 

The burnt vanilla smell of increasingly anxious beta mixed with straw and manure. Ramsay felt a headache coming on. 

“And Roose stopped by yesterday. Wanted to make sure you would be there Friday for the farm’s board meeting.”

“FUCK!” 

Ben winced at the shout and in the distance, betas also, Skinner’s and Luton’s heads swiveled to stare at them.

“Why won’t that prick get a damn cellphone!” Ramsay grumbled as cover for the sudden rage that filled him, learning that the older alpha come into his territory. 

His anger clashed with relief that his father refused to venture any further than the barn into the small corner his mother had left to him of Dreadfort Farm’s’ vast acreage.

“Yeah. I haven’t forgotten.” Ramsay hoped he sounded far more normal now than he felt. “He stops by again, tell him that for me, will you? In case you see him before I do.” 

He turned away in the direction of the shop, not waiting for Ben to answer.

In the farm’s equipment garage the smell of diesel and welding flux soothed and a sigh escaped him. The 6120 sat out in the open with a number of parts scattered around it on oil-stained concrete. 

Ramsay skirted the tractor and located Damon another bay over, working under the back of the kick-about F150 they kept for farm errands. Seeing His boots draw up from where he laid, Damon started talking before he even slid out from beneath the truck.

“I was half-way to the co-op yesterday when the fucking muffler fell off. And I need you to call in a PO number and authorization to John Deere. That part I need for the tractor is fucking expensive.”

Damon rolled himself out on his back on the slider trolley, wiping his hands on a dirty rag. Then he stopped.

On his way over from the barn Ramsay had almost convinced himself Damon might be able to help. They’d been friends since middle school and the other alpha shared some similar inclinations when it came to "O"s. Any thoughts of confession fled, however, seeing Damon’s expression.

“What?”

Ignoring his angry tone, Damon’s heavy brows dipped. He sniffed. “You sick? Was that why you’ve been so scarce the past few days?”

He clambered up to his feet and leaned in a little even as Ramsay arched away. “Cause, dude, no offense, but you smell strange.”

Internally Ramsay froze: while negligible to betas, of course other alphas and omegas would be able to smell his new bond. He wanted to kick himself that this thought hadn’t even crossed his mind until now.

“I’m fine!” he snapped. He pointed to a spatter of blood on his shirt. “Went hunting earlier. Got some rabbit guts on me. That’s all.”

“Doesn’t smell like guts.” 

“Stop fucking sniffing at me, D!”

At Ramsay’s obvious bristle Damon stepped back and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Whatever, Rams. Just glad you’re okay. Mostly ‘cause I was counting on still getting to watch the game on your big screen tomorrow.

“Hoping your invitation to share that half-time entertainment still stands too.” Damon grinned and winked before he turned in the direction of his tool bench. 

“You’ve had some prizes in the past, but that new omega whore of yours. Haven’t been able to get his pretty mouth off my mind since the last time…”

Hips suddenly slammed against the truck’s side, Damon’s words were cut off as Ramsay threw his body into his and pinned his broad chest to the hood. 

Although he’d shared Reek half a dozen times previously with the same ease he would a six-pack, right now the idea of Reek’s mouth on Damon, of Damon touching Reek at all, the other alpha even being in the same room as his sweet Reek… 

It drove Ramsay rabid.

“Reek’s mine!” he snarled into Damon’s ear, spittle flying. “Mine! You don’t fucking touch him! I catch you so much as looking at him, I’ll…”

Bigger than him, and stronger, Damon threw his elbows back, catching Ramsay's sides. He bucked upwards fast after, throwing him off. Ramsay stumbled back at the blows, fists clenched and growling as the other alpha turned.

“What the absolute, fuck!” Damon’s eyes were wild. His broad chest heaved still trying to recover the wind that had been knocked out of it. “Goddamn, Ramsay! What the hell’s gotten into you?!”

“Since when do you give a shit about me pawing one of your fuckpets?”

Then his nostrils flared. Damon’s eyes popped wide and his face took on a look of shock.

“Oh my God. Something's happened.”

“No!” Ramsay roared, “Nothing’s happened!”

Damon shook his head in disbelief. “Shit, Rams. Yeah it has. How in the hell?...”

Far worse than Damon’s horror was the expression of pity that followed after. The humiliation that flooded Ramsay was unbearable.

“Fuck you, Dance! I said NOTHING'S happened!” he shouted again. 

Seeing Damon believed the lie just as much as he did, he snarled, “Fuck you!" again, at a loss for anything more eloquent.

"Just stay the hell away from me for a while!” 

He edged backwards, suddenly desperate to get away. Part of this, after the reminder of Damon's usage, was an urge to rush to the house and check on Reek even though their tie told him he was fine.

He yelled over his shoulder as he fled the shop.

“And if you so much as say a word of what you’re thinking to anyone. Which is absolutely wrong by the way! I swear by all that’s holy, rabbits won’t be the only guts I end up wearing!”

Up at the farmhouse and out of his rig, Ramsay slammed the car door. Rifle in one hand, bag of skinned game in the other, he stomped up to the porch.

This was all Reek’s fault, that miserable, defective omega was going to pay for messing up his life like this.

Fuming, Ramsay pushed into the house and then… It hit him as soon as he stepped over the threshold.

The house wasn’t just quiet it smelled serene too. And it was disorienting just how fast this affected him: the fist gripping his chest eased in its clench and a bit of his fury immediately slipped.

Already calmer, Ramsay locked his rifle away in the front room gun cabinet and leaned his forehead against it. He thought about plugging his nose against the pheromones dampening his rage so he could keep the flames of it stoked, even as his nostrils flared trying to draw more of the air's rich pair-scent deeper into his lungs with every breath.

He’d entered the house wanting punish, to yell and throw things. Now, knowing through their tie Reek had been sleeping and was currently somewhere rousing, he despaired at his sudden desire to be quiet and allow him to wake up peacefully.

Feeling Reek’s quickening mind more strongly, Ramsay didn’t even need to call out to find him. Instead, he stumped over the front hall closet and opened the door. Because, of course, with him absent, how fucking touching would it be for his battered pet to take up waiting right there at the house’s entrance, in a space so akin to his kennel box, for his return?

He was able to hold onto this attitude of disdain until the concentrated honey-warm smell of fresh baked bread that he identified with the one truly happy memory he had of his mother wafted out of the closet’s enclosed space and enveloped him.

Happy or sad or anxious, the day after his gland was punctured Reek’s base scent had shifted to this and it seemed now to serve as the foundation for all his others. It drove Ramsay crazy in both the best and worst ways.

From his mini-nest of comforters on the closet floor Reek’s large green eyes blinked up at him. 

“Sorry, Sir. Reek sleep,” he mumbled shyly, cheek’s pinking as he pushed layers of nest away so he could crawl out. 

The sight of Reek wearing an old tee-shirt of his he'd slipped him into that morning and nothing else twisted Ramsay’s belly in a way that was unfortunately pleasurable and potent.

Though still gaunt and spiking the occasional fever, within just the course of a week, the changes that came from rest and food and the general absence of torture were already noticeable. Reek’s skin and eyes were brighter. His clean hair sported a soft shine. 

_I am not fucking melting,_ Ramsay silently declared while not a single alphic part of him listened.

Reek regarded him with concern. 

“Happy home?” he asked timidly.

His gaze was so hopeful and earnest. It made Ramsay's newly discovered heart hurt in such a dreadful way. He wanted to scoop Reek up and clench him to his chest and scream simultaneously.

He said none of this, however. Instead, he held the bloody bag of game out and offered stupidly, “I brought you rabbits.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	5. Sudden Reflections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reek is learning a lot about himself today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so another quick chapter. There won't likely be another update until next weekend.
> 
> Until that time, many thanks to User24601 and Ploy_Summers for their faithful comments. Thank you also, Holdt and Renfieldsyndrome, for joining this story and taking the time to offer a note.
> 
> And all you kudo-ers have my appreciation as well.

For a few moments Reek just stared at the gamesack held out to him, mind reeling. 

The air around Ramsay churned heavy with uncertainty. It was something that had crept into the alpha’s scent repertoire recently, a profile that had previously largely been a powerful, flat, mono-signature of hostility. This sudden burgeoning of Ramsay’s scent-complexity was strange and still so new Reek didn’t exactly know what to do with it. 

But then so much had changed in recent days he often had trouble processing. 

It had been years since he’d kept track of time, but he’d begun counting again and for the last seven days… Seven whole days!... 

He’d not only been completely freed from his kennel box, but he’d been allowed to sleep in his master’s bed with him. 

He’d been regularly fed and watered. 

And bathed. 

Given a shirt to wear and a little nest in every room, he’d gone seven days too without being painfully cold once. 

What’s more, for the whole of these, his neck had remained collarless.

And though he still yelled a fair amount, during this time, Ramsay had yet to hit or handle him harshly. 

Even their less frequent fuckings and suckings had been pretty painless. 

And now that he’d finally, finally, learned to cum on a knot there was pleasure for him in some of his duties too. 

Yes, though he would have never believed it possible after all he’d been through, for an entire week, dislocating as it sometimes was, he’d been living his fuckpet fantasy life. And now there was this... 

The alpha had brought him a present. 

“Meat Reek?”

“Uh, yes. For you… Er… Us… I mean... I thought I’d make rabbit stew for dinner.” 

If Reek hadn’t known his master as well as he did, he might have thought Ramsay Bolton was actually blushing.

And had he been a real omega and not a pet, he might have blushed too, because a gift of food like this, caught by an alpha’s own hand, was a major act of wooing, one holding implications of provision. 

It was the sort of thing he’d daydreamed about receiving when he was in junior omega school before he failed to present. 

Reek shook his head, reminding himself that, wonderful as the respite of the past days had been, it was far too dangerous to let himself get caught up in any of this kind of dreaming now. After all, he was not a person anymore, he was a pet. 

Not to mention, there was no forgetting all the terrible, painful things Ramsay had done to him. And could decide to do again at any moment.

Still, wanting to be good, Reek slowly stood up and took a halting step out of the closet. He was more than a bit wobbly, since upright was awkward and painful after so many years on his knees. 

Wary, he reached for the bag with both stub-fingered hands and was surprised at how formally Ramsay passed it over. The scent of blood clung heavily to the cloth and the distress that swirled around the alpha made his stomach uneasy. 

Even so, Reek found himself fighting not to smile a tiny bit. 

“Thank you, Sir.”

He was completely unprepared for the powerful wave of relief and alpha pleasure-scent that rushed forward following his words. This was also something new too, the way his master responded to him sometimes. 

It made Reek bold.

“Greet Reek?” he asked, glancing up through his lashes. He kept his head respectfully lowered, but tipped it to the side.

“What?” Ramsay looked shocked. 

Reek shut his eyes and tensed, certain he’d gotten overconfident and overstepped. But instead of a reprimand there was suddenly hot breath on his throat. Then the autumn-chilled bridge of Ramsay’s nose brushed along his neck.

“Oh, God.” 

How it was possible for Ramsay to sound both anguished and ecstatic at the same time, Reek didn’t know. But he did. 

The loud snuffles of an alpha scenting him that followed this exclamation and the brush of lips where his collar used to hang sent pleasurable tingles up Reek’s spine. Unable to help himself, he shifted his head slightly to rub his cheek against Ramsay’s. 

It was dangerous to do as a pet, scenting his master back like this, as if he was on the level of pack or partner. And he was stunned when it elicited a grateful sounding groan and Ramsay leaned into the contact.

It felt good to Reek too. So good, his recently re-discovered purr box kicked on again.

Given the happy rumblings in his chest, he was completely caught off guard then by the powerful sadness that suddenly surged in him. 

His purrs stuttered to a stop at the ache that took hold when a deep well of wishing opened in him. 

As much as he tried to tamp it down, he couldn’t help it. His longings bubbled up unbidden. He wished this exchange was real; that he was whole; that he was still a person; that he belonged to some truly kind, protective alpha who authentically loved him.

Next to him, his master stiffened and pulled back sharply. Ramsay smelled incredibly unhappy now. He set his hands carefully back on the bag of rabbits. It almost looked like they were shaking as it was lifted out of Reek's hands. 

“Uh… Let me go get the stew started,” Ramsay’s voice was rough, “and stick the rest of these in the freezer before they start to spoil.”

Reek watched him head to the kitchen, broad alpha shoulders held tight in an upset hunch. He wobbled after Ramsay wondering what had happened? 

This alpha was so confusing. 

Limping to his nest, set in a corner of the kitchen where the counters met, he plopped down, happy to give his taxed, trembling legs a break.

Ramsay set a couple of the dressed rabbits on a cutting board and wrapped the others in plastic, before stowing them in the freezer. Reek averted his eyes when he set about butchering the tiny bodies. Watching the alpha wielding a knife made him anxious and pushed his thoughts toward unhappy incidents.

He pulled one of his nest’s comforters up and ducked under it to try and hide from a series of painful triggered memories. Ones not just limited to Ramsay, but other alphas as well. 

From outside his soft shelter there were muffled curses and the sounds of Ramsay, clearly agitated, chopping more vigorously and slamming things around. What was likely only about twenty minutes felt like forever. Then the noises stopped and it got quiet.

Reek yelped in surprise when there was a gentle tug on his nest tent. 

“Reek…” 

The comforter was pulled back to reveal a deeply unhappy looking Ramsay standing over him. Without the shelter of the blanket to block it out, Reek’s nose was also hit with a rush of equally heavy, disturbed alpha smell.

“I need the slow cooker from the cupboard behind you.”

“Oh?” 

Reek shifted and scrambled to open the cupboard. Though his hands made the task trickier than it should have been, still, he was pleased to finally manage it and pull the cooker out. He picked up and started to rise with it.

“Here, Reek, let me…”

It was hard to know which of them was more surprised by the scolding chitter that cut Ramsay off. 

Reek was horrified by the sound he’d just made. His master’s face, however, had lost its gloomy expression and taken on one that might have passed for amused.

“Reek? What was that?”

“Sorry. Meek Reek. Meek Reek,” Reek offered in apology. ”Sorry, Sir. Sorry.”

“Mmmmm…” Ramsay didn’t look particularly inclined to accept it. “Was there something you wanted to say to me?”

Reek shrunk down beneath his curious gaze. He dropped his head and looked at the cooker cradled in his arms.

“Reek help?” He asked, expecting to at least be slapped. 

A week ago he would have been beaten for such an outburst. Actually, a week ago he wouldn’t have even been allowed in the kitchen unless his master wanted to fuck him there. 

Today, however, all the week’s perplexing strangeness continued and Ramsay merely said, “Okay”, and took a step back.

It took some time for Reek to get his feet under him. He wasn’t graceful by any means and his awareness of how intently Ramsay watched only made his awkwardness worse. Still, he managed to successfully lurch like a newborn foal across the kitchen, cooker in tow, over to where the stew ingredients sat.

He plugged the pot in with little difficulty. And then stood staring at the cartons of vegetable stock set out. His eyes flickered over to Ramsay who had pulled out and settled on one of the counter’s barstools.

“Go on.”

The way it was uttered was not just a permission but a challenge. Reek gave a determined huff and puffed his chest up as much as he dared. He was up for the task. Actually he was more than that - he was eager to prove himself.

Again, it took a little wrangling, but he managed to get the cartons’ caps off and the stock poured into the pot. Checking in at each step with a flickered glance to his master, when there was no objection, he then moved on to carefully add all the chopped ingredients Ramsay had prepared.

It wasn’t a difficult feat to accomplish by any means, but by the time he’d finished, in the physical condition he was in, sweat had gathered at his temples and his legs shook. Triumphant at last, however, he set the lid on the cooker and peered nervously over at Ramsay. 

The upset alpha scent from earlier had evened out and become benign. Ramsay sat there still, silent, regarding him thoughtfully. Then he rose and dragged his stool around to where Reek stood. Here, he urged him up onto it. 

Reek hesitated only a moment before sitting down. Once settled, he waited. Though he had recently passed a few wonderful evenings unmolested, curled up next to Ramsay on the couch, he’d been schooled too well that the only time a pet like him should be allowed on any furniture was when he was going to be fucked on it. 

Which, given the relative precarity of a stool, would no doubt prove unfortunately interesting.

But here again Ramsay made no move to mount him. 

Instead, he moved over to one of the upper cupboards and pulled down some spices. He added these to the cooker and set the timer. Then he turned to a drawer, pulled out a clean dishrag and ran it under the tap.

“Hand.”

Given all his hands had been though it was no small thing to mind, but Reek did as ordered and timidly extended his right one. Ramsay took it, regarding its mangled condition with the barest flash of dismay before he began to wash it. 

“Nice job on the stew,” was mumbled, along with a “good boy.”

With the shared meal making, Ramsay’s soft approval, and the dishcloth's gentle tending, Reek was filled with a rare happiness and offered his other hand with much less trepidation. He studied Ramsay covertly, his master’s face set in a serious mask. As he wiped down what remained of his fingers the alpha smelled increasingly sad.

Finished, Ramsay tossed the cloth in the sink. As he did, Reek noticed the blood on his shirt for the first time.  
  
“Hurt?!” He chirped in alarm. “Sir, Hurt?!”

“What? Oh. That's rabbit.” 

Despite this declaration Reek’s hands flew to the hem of Ramsay’s shirt and rucked it up, needing to see skin in order to be satisfied.

“Hey! What are you doing?” 

Ramsay moved to push his hands away only to be greeted by another burst of huffy chitters. 

This time, too worried about Ramsay’s possible injury, Reek made no attempt to quell the noise. Nor was he going to be thwarted from his investigation even if it meant he was punished afterwards. He tutted at Ramsay like an angry cat.

When Ramsay’s hands finally dropped to his sides, he was rewarded with a truncated purr. Shirt pushed up to the top of his tight pectorals, he stood still while Reek examined him. 

The fact that there was no bleeding wound had Reek sighing in relief. But this fell off when he noticed several spots on his master’s previously pristine torso where it was clear bruises were starting to bloom.

He traced one with a stub, ”Hurt?” 

The light hiss Ramsay was answer enough. 

Reek moved over to another. “How?”

In the time he’d known his master, never once had he seen him look anything akin to sheepish. 

Until now.

“Mmmmm... “ It looked like Ramsay didn’t want to tell him.

Reek didn’t know where his new fire came from, but he pressed lightly over the darkening skin and asked again, “How?”

Ramsay hissed again through gritted teeth at this tender probing before finally answering, “I may have scuffled a bit with Damon earlier.”

At the mention of the other alpha his master sometimes shared him with, Reek’s brow furrowed. He met Ramsay’s eyes and there was no mistaking the sound that escaped Reek this time was clearly a growl.

For the first time since he’d been purchased, Ramsay gave Reek what was truly a genuine smile. He stepped back, pulled his shirt down, and chuckled.

“Yeah. That was how I was feeling about him too at the time.”

Reek wasn’t about to let this end here, however. 

So Ramsay wasn’t bleeding, but he’d been scuffed. And now that he knew Damon had touched his master roughly, Reek couldn’t clear his nose of the imagined smell of that other alpha on his own.

He slid off the stool and took Ramsay’s whole hand between his own damaged ones and pulled. 

Throughout this whole episode Ramsay’s expression had grown increasingly befuddled. At this sudden pulling he tipped his head to the side.

“What’s up with you, Reek?”

“Reek mean. Reek clean!” 

Ramsay shook his head not understanding but allowed himself to be led down the hall to the bathroom. 

“Oh,” he said when Reek gestured to the old claw-footed tub. 

Reek collapsed next to it, dropped the plug, and turned on the tap. 

“Please? Reek Clean.” 

He sorted through the small assortment of bottles set atop a small tub-side table until he found one that smelled like sage. He added a bit to the water.

Ramsay stared at him like he was seeing him for the first time. His brows dipped and he nodded. 

“Okay.”

Reek was so relieved when Ramsay pulled out of his shirt, then stripped down the rest of the way and climbed into the bath. 

“I haven’t sat in a tub for years,” Ramsay sighed as he settled into the steaming water and tipped his head back. “Huh. This feels pretty good.”

Shuffling up so he was sitting at the end closest to his master’s head, Reek started when fingers plucked at his tee-shirt. 

“Come on. This is a big tub and you’re looking a little cold there.”

Before he quite understood what was happening, Ramsay had pulled his shirt off and pulled him into the tub with him.

Reek settled between his master’s thighs. The water did feel good. With a little urging he leaned back against Ramsay's chest. 

Long alpha fingers pulled warm water up and dribbled it over his scarred torso. Reek shifted, turning sideways. Beneath his ear Ramsay’s heart pulsed strong and steady. The press of his soft alpha cock against his hip didn’t threaten.

Reek never thought anything about this master could be anything but terrifying. Seven days ago he would have said so too, if asked. But now...

Everything was so strange…

It made his head hurt.

Almost instantly there were fingers pressed to his temple, rubbing.

"You’re thinking too hard, sweet Reek,” Ramsay grumbled. “Knock it off before you give us both a headache.”

Reek didn’t understand this strange admonition entirely but he did close his eyes and fitfully drifted, wrapped in the sweet smell of saged bathwater and some other lovely scent he couldn’t identify.

They stayed there in the tub, soaking, taking turns lackadaisically soaping up bits of each other’s bodies until the water got cool enough to get uncomfortable. 

“Huh,” Ramsay muttered behind him, his tone one of someone just waking up. “What in hell just happened?”

"Mother fucking bonding," he murmured under his breath. He gave a light push to Reek’s shoulders.

“Okay, enough lounging. There’s still stuff to do today.”

Reek scooched forward and Ramsay clambered out, dripping. He crawled out after with a little help. 

“Dry off.” Ramsay ordered as he wrapped a towel around his lean waist. “I’m going to go get some clean clothes. I’ll bring you another shirt.”

Reek nodded. A little off balance he stumbled to the vanity and grabbed it to steady himself. As he did he caught his reflection in the mirror behind it.

Generally he tended to avoid mirrors as much as possible. His years as a pet had not been kind to him and being confronted with the visual truth of this only pained him.

Today, however, when he saw himself, he didn’t register the still-gaunt cheeks or too-large eyes. Not the lingering bruises or the scars either.

No.

What caught his attention immediately was the dark purple-red tattoo of a full-blown, resolved, mate-mark set within the haloed impression of teeth where Ramsay had bitten him seven days prior.

A mate mark.

Reek’s eyes grew huge. His hand flew to his throat with a strangled cry.

Told his bonding gland was defunct, that he was defective and he’d never bond, for him to bear such a mark should have been impossible.

At the sound of his cry, almost out the door, Ramsay turned. His master’s face paled. 

“I thought you… How could you not know?”

Reek’s welling eyes, unable to land, kept shifting from Ramsay to the sight of his neck captured in steamed glass.

His neck had hurt with that fever, Ramsay bit him (he'd bitten him lots of places previously) and it had hurt worse. And then the hurt had faded. But he never thought in that sequence of events that...

“Ramsay’s Reek?” He finally choked out as fuller realization and it's implications dawned.

Ramsay had drawn up alongside him. His face was unreadable as he nodded and softly growled, “Ramsay’s Reek.”

Hearing the words uttered from his alpha’s mouth made Reek’s head spin. His chest grew so tight he suddenly couldn’t catch a breath.

“Ramsay’s Reek,” he repeated once more in a whispered gasp before his reflection dimmed and his world fell black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	6. Drastic Actions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drastic circumstances call Ramsay to drastic actions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Afterhold, Ploy_Summer, TheNymphNagisa, *User24601, YourWastedSpace, Zingo... Thank you all for your amazing comments. They brighten my whole day!
> 
> And I see all you gracious kudo-ers too! You folks are very appreciated.
> 
> Hope the story continues to engage you.

Reek fiddled nervously with his seatbelt. The last time he’d been in a car was when Ramsay bought him and transported him to the farmhouse. But it had been years since he’d actually ridden upright in a seat and not trussed up in a trunk or locked into a kennel box. 

He stared out the SUV’s window. They’d emerged from the farmlands a while ago and the landscape had become increasingly urban, the traffic congested. As more vehicles pressed around them he grew increasingly anxious. He didn’t understand why they’d left the farmhouse in the first place. 

He desperately wanted to go back. Despite how terrible most of his time with Ramsay had been, Reek missed the closeness of the farmhouse’s familiar spaces and scents, and all his new nests.

“Sweet Reek? Good boy?” He asked timidly for about the dozenth time since they’d started driving, worried somehow Ramsay’s answer might now be different.

“Yes, Good boy,” Ramsay said quietly, his eyes not leaving the road. 

Reek studied his master, worried. As soon as he’d answered, Ramsay’s mouth settled back into its previous tight line. His color was off: he was pale with hectic splotches on his cheeks. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel. He shed a heavy scent too, one Reek didn’t recognize.

Ramsay had exhibited this same odd scent and stiff strangeness ever since Reek woke up on the bathroom floor cradled in his arms.

He had more than half-expected to be disciplined for losing consciousness. It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time he’d earned such a punishment. But instead, Ramsay had stayed largely calm and silent. He was quiet all through dressing him and loading them up into the car.

Lifting a hand, Reek touched the place where his recently-discovered bondmark sat for about the hundredth time since he’d woken. Still in a state of shock, “Ramsay’s Reek?” he murmured softly to himself. He had yet to figure out what had happened to leave him with a mated seal. He’d never thought a pet could be bonded.

After all, that’s why they were made pets in the first place. 

Reek dropped his hand and his stubs plucked at the soft fabric of the oversized hoodie Ramsay had selected for his top layer as he wondered what it all meant. There was a sudden almost painful twist in his belly thinking about how it would be to have Ramsay for a real mate, given what he’d experienced so far at his hands. 

The past week had been so nice, but earlier...

All these complex musings left him with a tangle of emotions he just couldn’t untie. The stress of it made him dizzy and his head ache. 

Turning his attention back to the outside scenery a sudden swell of nausea gripped him. He jumped when the window next to him rolled down a bit and cool, fresh air rushed in. Despite the tang of exhaust he sniffed at it eagerly.

“Thank you. Thank you.”

Ramsay just hummed in response to his gratitude and kept driving.

As soon as Reek’s car sickness began to abate, Ramsay gave a silent relieved sigh. Honestly, it was taking everything he had just to keep them on the road and out of a wreck. Reek’s unchecked waves of emotion colliding with his own all but overwhelmed.

His eyes flickered from the road ahead to the various mirrors and then to Reek, and back to the road again. Not for the first time since they’d started this journey he was struck with the urge to turn around and go back home. 

He gritted his teeth and growled softly.

No. He had to do this. He had to do something. 

Things had gotten completely out of hand with this whole bonding bit. 

He cringed thinking about his “rabbit gift,” only realizing the implications of what he’d instinctively done afterward. And then there was his backing down to Reek’s chittered omega scolds rather than punishing him for his insolence. Followed up with his pair-building grooming behavior with the handwash after Reek’s struggled efforts to cook... And their (ugh) cuddle in the bathtub. 

Worse than any of these, however, is what happened when Reek pushed up his shirt to check for injuries once he saw the rabbit’s blood on him. No pet should go undisciplined for touching his master without permission. But there was more to it than that.

Ramsay turned his indicator on and slid into the lane for the next off ramp.

Through their new bond, when Reek examined him, he’d felt raw, real concern. And it hadn’t ended with that moment either. Even now, as Reek sat beside him, he was tickled by soft tendrils of worry for him.

In all his life he’d never experienced this: someone genuinely caring if he was okay; someone truly concerned about his well being. And Reek’s adorable furious indignation that Damon had bruised him… 

Ramsay couldn’t recall a single time anyone had previously been upset on his behalf for an injury, of any sort, someone else had visited on him.

His father always cold, his mother incapable, he’d discovered early on in his life that he was decidedly unlovable. After realizing this, he had taken great pains to cultivate this aspect of himself rather than attempt to curtail it. As a result, he wasn’t an individual who incited compassion or care any more than he engaged in these expressions himself.

This was why his workers, even Damon, his closest (only) friend, had not so much as bothered to drive up to the house to check on him when he didn’t show up at the barn for days without even dropping them a call.

Oblivious to the blighted area of the city they’d veered into, Ramsay’s mind was still too focused on the unexpected and oddly wonderful ache Reek’s attendance had borne in him. 

And the fact Reek managed this care for him after enduring so much of his purposeful cruelty had only made the ache more potent.

The SUV traveled through the shadows cast by tenement structures. Dropped between their heights like broken teeth were squatter buildings, most of these offering base necessities for survival or sordid services. Ramsay passed a dozen omega strip clubs without even a blink, unseeing, too caught up in the throes of his thoughts. 

Because Reek’s care still wasn’t even the worst of it.

The absolute worst of it had come for him just after Reek fell in his faint. In holding his thin, still body in his arms, fingers pressed just above his bond mark desperate to read the braille of a pulse. 

After a week of cursing and railing about their tie; of raging at the trespass of Reek’s mind into his own consciousness; of feeling claustrophobic beneath the cacophony of another’s broken thoughts and unmitigated emotions even when sleeping… 

When Reek passed out the energy of the bond went out with it.

Returned to the unattached aloneness he’d navigated his entire life, Reek clasped tight to his chest, Ramsay thought he might actually die from the emptiness. 

It had been unbearable. 

His chest still churned with the shame of how he’d wept from the pain of it until Reek’s first subtle reviving stirs. His cheeks burned and his eyes grew blurry even now at the mere memory.

“Sweet Reek? Ramsay’s Reek?” Came the quiet, worried voice beside him.

Reek’s growing panic knifed at Ramsay’s guts. He couldn’t bear to look at his mate/pet as he answered, “Yes.”

And this was only after a week. How much worse would the cursed spell of this damned bonding become a month from now? Six months? A year? It would likely only grow stronger.

He turned his car onto the street known as _Bitch Row_ and into an alley between two dilapidated buildings. 

It had become clear to him this bond had to be severed now before it got any worse. 

Ramsay didn’t believe in gods but he prayed that the brothel vet Qyburn could fix this.

Reek’s heart pounded when Ramsay parked the car. He didn’t like the look of where they were at all. It reminded him of bad things.

Why were they here? What was happening?

“Ramsay’s Reek?” he asked again, terror rising when Ramsay didn’t reply. 

There was a short-lived burst of relief when Ramsay pulled his recently absent collar from one of his pockets. Reek stretched his neck forward eagerly. Sporting this meant he bore his master’s claim and he needed the assurance of it desperately right now.

Ramsay pulled his rarely used phone from his pocket too and tapped something out before tucking it away again. Reek couldn’t contain the shivers that seized him when alpha fingers left the buckle at his throat and Ramsay got out of the car.

As he made his way around the front of the SUV, Ramsay set a hand on the hood to steady himself. Reek’s fear was strong enough to double him over. Far worse than even the first days of their bond. He’d been hard pressed then to think his pet’s fright could get any worse. 

How badly wrong he’d been.

He opened Reek’s door with trembling fingers. “Come on, sweet Reek. We need to get you checked out after that fainting incident. Make sure you’re okay.”

Reek smelled the lie as much as he heard it. He didn’t want to get out of the car. Tears filled his eyes. “Ramsay’s Reek?” It was a desperate, broken beg this time.

“Yes. Now come on! I’m not going to ask again,” Ramsay growled needing for this to be over already. His head ached so badly. 

He grabbed Reek’s arm and pulled. Reek allowed himself to be drug out unresisting. That was until he saw the sign over the side door he was being led to. 

_LittleFinger’s Brothel_

He choked. This was where Ramsay bought him. His master had decided to sell him back.

Reek fell to his knees with a wail. Skinny arms wrapped around Ramsay’s legs. Reek buried his face in the dip where they met and bawled. 

“Please, Sir! Please! Sweet Reek! Ramsay’s Reek!” His words were hardly understandable through his sobs. 

“Be good! Promise! Promise! Master… Please!”

The door opened to reveal Qyburn. The alpha vet held a cigarette in hand preparing to light it.

At the sight of him, Reek shrieked and Ramsay toppled over. Not hesitating for a second Reek crawled into his lap.

He wrapped his legs around his master’s waist and his arms around his neck. He buried his nose under Ramsay’s jaw where his own sleepy bonding gland laid and breathed in the potent agitated scent there. 

Reek’s lips sought the site of the gland out and he mouthed at desperately.

“Alpha… Alpha… Be good… Promise… Ramsay’s Reek… Please. 

“Fuck, Suck, Cut… Hurt Reek… Reek be good. Promise! Promise, Alpha please!

“Please. Please. Please...” Reek wept so hard he could barely breathe. “Please, Alpha, keep Reek.

"Keep Reek!”

"Please."

Qyburn leaned against the doorframe, pulling his first drag as he took in the sight. Ramsay set on his ass in the dirty alley, his hysterical omega fuckpet clinging to him.

“Got your text you’d arrived. What the hell’s this, Bolton?”

When people spoke of fear, Ramsay had never quite understood what they meant. Like attachment, it wasn’t something he’d really ever experienced until recently. Things felt irritating to him often, dangerous on occasion… but true fear?

Well, he knew now. 

The purity of Reek’s horror was devastating. If he thought Reek had been bad moments ago while still in the car, the power of this panic cut Ramsay’s legs right out from under him.

But what made him more certain he might be on the cusp of losing his sanity was hearing Reek call him “Alpha” with such absolute abjection in his voice.

“Sedative!” Ramsay gasped out over Reek’s rough crying. 

Qyburn leaned forward as though to hear better but didn’t move otherwise.

“Give him a fucking sedative!” Ramsay shouted, prying Reek’s wrapped arms away enough he could draw a full breath.”Trank him!”

“It’s going on your bill,” Qyburn warned. He pulled a capped syringe from his pocket, part of the daily tools of his trade and strode over, lit cigarette dangling from his lips.

Reek didn’t even hiccup in his mantra of “Alpha”s and “Please”s when the needle went into him. However, his cries quickly grew softer and his words increasingly slurred until finally he fell quiet.

“Thought you had better control of your bitches, Bolton.”

“I do,” Ramsay growled when he really wanted to weep at the relief of Reek’s brain falling mute. 

Reek wasn’t out cold, but it was enough.

“You letting them call you alpha now too?”

“No!” Ramsay shook his pounding head. “Shut up, Okay! And just help me get up.”

“Not really part of my job description,” Qyburn muttered but he assisted anyway.

Soon Ramsay found himself standing, Reek still held in his arms, softly sniffling and clinging to him with sleepy limbs like a koala. 

“Come on in,” Qyburn urged. 

“It’s a wonder with all that commotion you didn’t drag half the street in here to gawk.” Though they both knew the likelihood of anyone caring about a wailing omega in any alley of Bitch Row was small to none, unless they thought there was a chance to join in.

Reek had the slighter build common to omegas and his still too-skinny frame made him lighter yet, but he was still a male of more than two decades' growth, so carrying him was a bit awkward. It didn’t help that exposure to all Reek’s emotions as well as his own new ones left Ramsay ill and disoriented.

He pushed past Qyburn into the back of the brothel. The vet sniffed openly as Ramsay slid by.

“By the gods… I can understand why your fuckpet’s frightened but what’s got you scared shitless?”

“What?”

Qyburn just shook his head and pointed to a room. Ramsay moved forward toward it on autopilot. 

His nose wrinkled in disgust at how the brothel smelled today. Before, he’d loved stepping into these places. The lust-despair-anger-fear-pain-pleasure scents of it all had been an elixir as intoxicating to him as liquor. 

Today it just smelled like burning hair.

They walked past a few caged omegas Qyburn was working on. Ramsay experienced an odd twinge at their haunted eyes and bloody bandages. He shifted his hold on Reek, pulling him tighter in and instinctively tipped his nose closer to Reek’s collared neck where his sad, sleepy scent was strongest.

“It’s not like you to bring a bitch back.” Inside a stark room Qyburn patted a steel table and Ramsay settled Reek’s butt down on it. “You’ve always been more the ‘single use’ sort.

“So what’s this mysterious emergency?”

Reek whined as Ramsay pulled out of his grip and laid him down on the table on his side. He unbuckled the collar around Reek’s neck to reveal his mate mark.

“Fuck me…”

The cigarette fell from Qyburn's gawping mouth. It hit his lab coat, embers smoking. “Oh, Hell!’ He batted at the front of his smock and stamped the butt out when it hit the floor on his way over to get a better look.

“I remember this one, Bolton. He was certified “defective”... double checked his phenomena myself. How... How did this happen? How did you manage...?

Though sedated, Reek started quietly crying again when his collar was removed. Ramsay took hold of his hand and shushed him. His other hand clumsily petted Reek’s head. 

Watching this display Qyburn seemed in almost as much awe at Ramsay’s awkward comforting as he was at Reek’s mark. He leaned down to inspect Reek’s gland more closely. His eyebrows shot up when Ramsay growled at him.

“Sorry,” Ramsay grumbled, cheeks heating. He hadn’t even been conscious he’d uttered the alphic warning until he saw the vet’s reaction.

Qyburn waved it off, too intrigued with Reek’s mark to be offended. “Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. When did this occur?”

“About a week ago?”

“Really? 

“Not surprised you’d growl then.” Qyburn straightened and regarded him. “I am surprised, however, that the two of you are here. It usually takes a couple weeks for a newly bonded pair to feel comfortable leaving their territory at all.”

He shook his head and laughed. “Who’d have ever thought it? Ramsay Bolton, slayer of bitches, tied to a fuckpet!”

Ramsay growled without apology this time at Qyburn’s insensitive mirth.

“I still can’t believe it… This is incredible. I’m going to want to draw some blood… Run some tests...” When the vet went to press his fingers to Reek’s mark, Reek hissed at him and weakly tried to climb up Ramsay’s arm to get away. 

“Little omega bitch. He always was a fiesty one.” 

Ramsay frowned at Qyburn’s curse and his leering. 

“Ah, sorry!” Qyburn chuckled, catching his glare. “Suppose I shouldn’t be talking about your omega that way now. It’s going to be a bit of an adjustment. Can’t imagine how it’s been for you.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m here...” Ramsay settled Reek down by scruffing him with a strong hand clasped to the back of his neck. Reek whimpered but submitted and stilled.

“I don’t even know how it happened,” he huffed. “As you said, you saw his papers. You signed off on his exit exam. He was defective.”

“Well, clearly he’s not now.” 

Ramsay rolled his eyes at the vet's overly-obvious observation but his annoyance quickly slipped away at Qyburn’s next words.

“Why’d you bring him here?” 

“What?”

“Well, he needs a doctor now, technically, not a vet.”

“What the hell are you talking about?!”

Now it was Qyburn’s turn to roll his eyes. “The mark is valid. He’s bonded. Must be fertile too, if this happened. An omega can’t bond outside a heat any more than an alpha can outside a rut.”

“Fertile, bonded. You surely you fucked him plenty during his heat, eh? So maybe he’s knocked up as well now…

“At any rate, he’ll have to be restored to regular omega status, with this…” Qyburn waved his hand at the mark. “I mean, I shouldn’t even be taking his blood now that he’ll be a person again, not a pet. Amazing... such a rarity.

“But you’ll let me have some of it still, yes? I mean… who knows what special things it might hold.

“You’ll want to use his pet certificate to find his kin. They’ll want to know, probably…”

“No.” Ramsay shook his head as what was said settled in. “No… No… This can’t be happening.

“Look, he had a fever off and on for a couple days. Ran one the day the mark showed up but it wasn’t a heat, I’m confident. Reek didn’t even smell any stronger than usual. 

“Sure, he might have slicked a bit, but he wasn’t wet and dripping. He didn’t wail for a knot.

“No, there has to be some other explanation!”

“Bolton, you’re a damn knothead,” Qyburn tsked. “First heat is often mild. And given the sorry condition your mate is in, that he went into heat at all is remarkable.”

He stroked his chin thoughtfully staring at Reek. “Your compatibility level must be exceptionally high for him to spark like that.”

Ramsay was still blinking at hearing the vet call Reek his ‘mate’ so plainly. Now to hear Reek’s mark was because they were compatible? Impossible! There was no one in the world Ramsay Bolton was compatible with. 

And to think if there was that it would be Reek? 

The thought made him ill. 

And desperate.

“No. I swear to you it wasn’t a heat!” 

“Oh?” Qyburn regarded him curiously. “What makes you so convinced?”

Ramsay fought to keep his shoulders back and his chin raised, but he could do nothing to keep the blood from rising to his cheeks.

“Because I didn’t respond to him like I would have if he’d really been in a heat.”

“What’s that you say? Can you be clearer?” Qyburn tipped his head to the side.

“I didn’t respond like he was in a heat…” Ramsay repeated.

“Speak plainly, Bolton!”

Ramsay tried to throw up his hands in disgust but Reek refused to relinquish the one held in his stub-fingered paw.

“Look! You know I’m always hard and ready to fuck!” he snapped. “But that wasn’t the case on the day the mark showed up. Not so much after either.” His face burned with his blush. 

“There was no syncing rut. I wasn’t rabid. I didn’t have the urge to fuck Reek into the ground or live for days with him hanging off my knot. Our fuck when the mark happened wasn’t even furious… It was… Uh… Different...”

Qyburn squinted at Ramsay as he spoke as though trying to read the fine print on something. Then his eyes popped open wide like he’d just had a revelation. He threw back his head and cackled madly.

“Holy fuck! By the gods, Bolton, you’re not just mated to your omega fuckpet… You’ve been Tamed!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	7. Taking in Hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One goes tame the other wild.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for missing last week's update. But here we go, getting back on schedule! 
> 
> My thank to all the commenters. I'm amazed by the enthusiasm this story has generated so far.
> 
> And to you delicious kudo-ers, thank you too!

There was a loud crash.

Reek shrieked at the noise. Dragging himself to the table’s edge on numb limbs he tumbled drunkenly off and curled up beneath it.

He was nowhere near as suddenly terrified, however, as Qyburn when, at his cackled declaration of “taming,” Ramsay charged, threw, and pinned the vet up against a dingy, chart-covered wall.

Already large eyes bugged out even more at the hard press of a forearm across his throat. Qyburn choked.

Ramsay shouted, speckling his face with spittle as he raged, “What the fuck! Don’t you dare… Don’t you dare declare me, Ramsay _Rabid Dog_ Bolton, of having been tamed! Especially not by something as pathetic as a pet!”

“I’m sorry I laughed…” Qyburn gasped, his face turning red. “I didn't mean to offend...

“Clearly you are not a 'tamed' man,” he croaked. “But when I said that... It’s actually the term for a specific... dynamic medical reaction... I was referencing...”

With his vision coated still in the red mist of his fury, the little bit that remained of Ramsay’s rational brain supplied that, if it was truly a biological phenomena, it might work to his best interest to learn what he could about it before killing Qyburn.

“Explain.”

He lifted his arm up just enough to allow for a bit of breath.

“Are you aware of how…” Qyburn gasped, “certain stimulants... Affect those with conditions... Like, say, ADHD?”

Ramsay knew what the letters meant but nothing more. He shook his head.

“While stimulants amp most people up... For folks with that specific diagnosis... Those same substances work to the opposite effect... Slowing them down.”

“What the fuck does ADHD and stimulants have to do with me?!” Ramsay demanded impatiently.

“Nothing,” Qyburn managed to roll his eyes despite being suffocated. “But if you’ll let me explain…

“For some alphas... Ones like yourself... Who tend to be particularly voracious... Hyper-alphic... Certain omegas... Not all... May have the opposite effect on them.”

Ramsay’s expression was still furious but now also puzzled. He lifted his elbow up a little more. “Go on.”

“If it is a case of ‘taming,’” Qyburn coughed as his breath came back to him, “Reek’s compatibility-heat tamped you down.”

“Where normally an omega in heat renders an alpha primal, his pheromones calmed you.

“Instead of inciting the usual alphic erections, his chemicals countered your normally already rampant libido.”

This caught Ramsay’s attention. He cocked his head, listening intently.

“In terms of thought, rather than being reactive, you became reflective.

“And in some cases, clearly not yours from how you’re acting now,” Qyburn growled hoarsely, “This doesn’t just happen in a heat, but the effect is constant…”

Ramsay’s arm lifted higher and the vet slipped out from under it.

Hands rising to stroke his bruised throat Qyburn scowled. “It makes the most sense given what you described. It’s rare but not unheard of. I can draw some blood from you too. Check your A- levels… Bonding hormones...”

Ramsay stared at him suspiciously. “So you’re saying just being around Reek, if this is the case, would make me…

“Closer to normal,” Qyburn snapped, given the fact he’d just been throttled.

“What about the other stuff?!”

“What other stuff?” Qyburn bent to pick up some of the medical supplies knocked off of his medical trolly and the counter during Ramsay’s charge.

“He’s in my head.”

Qyburn looked up, quizzical, “What?”

“Reek, he’s in my head… ever since I bit him.”

“Well, that’s your problem, Bolton.” Qyburn set the now contaminated tools back on his trolley. “You were just supposed to fuck him, torture him, bleed him a bit if the inclination hit. Not bite him and fucking bond with him.”

Ramsay took a step forward as Qyburn stepped back. “Do I look like the kind of Alpha that doesn't bite?”

Qyburn shook his head. Seeing how truly frantic light in Ramsay’s eyes he held his hands up in a gesture of surrender and offered, “Look, It’s part of the tie, the bond…

“I know for a lone wolf like you it must be perplexing. But trust me, everybody goes through a period of adjustment when they become conscious of another person’s presence within their own.

“It’s not just his presence, Qyburn,” Ramsay’s voice grew loud. “I feel his emotions. I see his past, like they’re my own! Do you know what it's like living with a perfect knowledge of another creature’s thoughts and memories? It's like my mind’s been split in two.

“How the fuck am I suppose to go out in the world when my brain is scrambled?

“Like, earlier today... I was chopping vegetables and when he saw me with the knife…” Ramsay rubbed his temples… “So many people, not just me, have cut him! I could hardly finish what I was doing, seeing all that shit… touching the pain stored in his skin…”

“Hmmm… Fascinating.” Qyburn’s still-watering eyes glistened now with curiosity too.

“And not just the past…” Ramsay shook his head at his most recent humiliation. “His fear of coming back to this place…” An involuntary shiver seized him at some of the things that had flashed through his mind. “What you did to him too,” the growl that crept into his voice was audible.

“That’s why I was on my ass in the alley. His fear…” Ramsay stopped, realizing he’d already given enough detail to leave himself vulnerable. “Even fucking doped up he’s sitting fat as a cat at the back of my brain right now.”

Ramsay pinched the bridge of his nose, weary of the weight. Qyburn, meanwhile, was completely enthralled with this information.

“I wonder…” His recent near-death seemingly forgotten as the excitement of scientific inquiry surged. “Normally in bonds there are blinds, spots are blocked to certain extent, mate telepathies obscured by folks’ inherent internal self-protective mechanisms. The mind’s natural functions, if you will. And these become stronger as the bond deepens in all manner of ways.

“But your little bitch is so broken,” Qyburn pulled another cigarette from the crumpled pack in his pocket as his eyes darted over to the table where, beneath it, Reek half-droused now under the effect of the sedative. “It’s entirely possible your pet… er… mate has no filters left. His mind is completely open. Almost innocent in that way…

“Utterly remarkable..”

Qyburn’s eyes shifted back to Ramsay. The look in them was delighted and not at all kind. He lit up and coughed heavily at the first hit into his abused throat.

“That must be excruciating for you,” he smirked as he exhaled.

Ignoring the irony that this had been his very M.O. prior to Reek’s ill-fated heat, Ramsay’s expression darkened considerably at the pleasure Qyburn seemed to derive from his pain.

“I want you to fix it.”

“Oh?” Qyburn’s bushy brows lifted. “Well, that’s easy.”

“Thank the gods!” Ramsay sighed.

“All you have to do is break the bond.”

“What?! No. Wait…. Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Mmmhmm… For you.” Qyburns took another puff. “I don’t see a mate mark on your neck. You said you didn’t rut. So you only have a half bond going now. You’re tied to him, but he’s not got the same connection to you. Yet.”

“So, yeah, bond breaks… It's difficult and not done lightly.” The vet tapped some ash onto the already dirty floor. “And it's going to hurt like nothing you've ever felt before. But if you do it now, you might even survive it. You wait too much longer and it would definitely kill you.”

“What?” Ramsay’s eyes grew wide and wilder. “How much longer?”

Qyburn shrugged. “Who can say? And with all the unusual circumstances of your particular pairing…” He covered his mouth and coughed again, though it was obvious he was trying once more not to laugh. “It could be too late already. Because from what you said, your mate’s already pretty deeply imbedded.

“The only way to know for sure is to try and hope you survive.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound hopeful or attractive as a possibility at all.” Ramsay frowned. “But just out of curiosity, what’s the best way to break a bond?”

“Honestly?”

“No. Fucking lie to me!” Ramsay rolled his eyes in disgust.

“Well, the simplest and the safest one, for you,” Qyburn gulped and his Adam’s apple bobbed in his bruised throat, knowing newly-bonded alphas could be ridiculously protective, whether they wanted to be or not. Added to the fact Ramsay already looked to flash feral again at any moment.

“Well... And I am in no way volunteering to do this. But the simplest, cleanest, and most permanent way for you to rid yourself of an unwanted bond is for your omega to ... er... Expire.”

“Expire? What do you mean, expire?”

“Don’t play stupid, Bolton. I’d think that word would be high on your personal vocabulary list.”

Qyburn drew a line across his own crimson marred throat. Ramsay felt the blood leave his face.

“Wouldn’t be the first time you’ve done it, would it?” The vet regarded him coolly. “Or did you re-home all those other pets you bought before this one?”

Qyburn yelped when Ramsay lunged again. Only this time, not his throat but his arm was seized in an iron grip and he was jerked out of the room and into the hallway.

“What the fuck, Bolton. What’s the meaning of this?!”

“What’s the meaning?!” Ramsay hissed. “Are you serious? Thinking it’s okay to talk about murdering my ma--- er, pet in front of him?

“And what the fuck are you grinning about, you quack!”

“Am I grinning?” Qyburn had managed to hold onto his smoke in their sudden shift of locations. He took a slow puff while Ramsay fumed.

“I was just thinking that maybe… Maybe, it wasn’t just a compatibility-heat taming you experienced.” The vet regarded Ramsay slyly. “Because when in the life of you, have you ever given consideration for a pet’s feelings about anything.”

Qyburn offered between smoke rings, “Never once in the years I’ve known you.”

He studied Ramsay carefully. “Outside Littlefingers, who else knows about Reek?”

Still reeling from his comments, Ramsay was thrown off by this question even more. “My friend Damon…” He replied without asking why.

“That’s it?”

Ramsay nodded.

“Well, you know, you could just continue to keep him as he is,” Qyburn offered. “Your secret, for a bit of your blood, is safe with me. And this place is remarkably shoddy when it comes to keeping paperwork.

“If your friend is a worthy confidante, nothing in your life really needs to change. Of course, you’ll still be bonded. But maybe that connection will settle over time. It would probably be the easiest route for both of you to keep your omega as a pet.

“It’s what he knows. What he’s good at. Shouldn’t take much to keep him content. You could stand to be a kinder master, but if the taming holds…”

Qyburn dropped his cigarette and crushed it out.

“If you don’t break the bond, the other option is to try and restore him as a person. Though I doubt he’ll ever come back from it. Too far gone.” He stared at Ramsay and chuckled nervously, “I mean imagine even trying to take him out in public. Grocery shopping even.”

Ramsay waved his arms wildly as though this might make his newest nightmare end but Qyburn kept talking.

“If you take that route, and you did knock up your no-longer fuckpet, I can give you the name of a doctor who’d see you through the pupping without asking too many questions. Don’t want your Reek taken away from you for abuse no, do you?”

Ramsay blinked stunned by the implications. “They… They’d do that?”

“You know, Bolton, I could maybe even help you more if you went this route.” His eyes took up their wheedling shine again. “I’ve had some great success with my experiments lately and, for the right price… I could regrow his fingers for you. Maybe even restore his cock. That might help your case…”

Ramsay was completely stunned. “What? That’s impossible.”

“Mmmmmm…” Qyburn tipped his head to the side.”Is it?”

Ramsay didn’t want to think about why the idea of Reek with all his fingers back held such sudden, strong appeal for him. He liked the omega’s tiny docked cock too but imagined Reek might like to see it restored.

“What would that cost?”

Qyburns stroked the white hairs on his chin. “For his fingers I’d be willing to accept one of yours in exchange.”

Seeing Ramsay’s horrified expression he chided him. “Oh, come on. I’d settle for your pinky, down to mid-knuckle. That’s hardly anything, really, a mere few inches of flesh. And a wee bit of bone for my experiments."

“I’d say that’s a bargain, actually. Especially considering how many he’s missing.” Seeing that didn’t shift things, Qyburn reconfigured. “How about two diamond-shaped, flayed skin patches. Off the back. Shoulders work? Say four by four inches?”

Ramsay shook his head. “I’m not even going to ask what you’d want to fix his cock.”

Qyburn laughed, “Oh surely that can’t be a trick to figure out for a man of your ilk.

“I’ve always wanted to fuck an alpha. Rabid, hyper-alphic, like you. The thrill of bitching someone like that...” His eyes shone with a dark lust.

“That’s disgusting, I’d never…” Ramsay spat.

“Well, that’s the crux of it, isn’t it?” Qyburn inked at him. “Not nearly as satisfying when they’re willing. But you know that.”

“You’re ridiculous!”

“Am I?” Qyburn stared at Ramsay. “And yet, here we are still talking. All the things I’ve suggested on your omega's behalf and yet you haven’t tried to kill me… Again.” The vet’s grin became suddenly wolfish.

“You know, I think I might advise you against trying to break your bond after all.

“I’m growing convinced now you’re far deeper into this than I anticipated. Far more already than you have even begun to imagine.”

Sputtering with rage, Ramsay was about to charge Qyburn again. He’d raised up like a ram ready to drop his horns and clash skulls when suddenly the color fled his face, leaving the hectic spots on his cheeks even brighter.

“Oh, no” He breathed. "Fuck.

"REEK!"

Vet forgotten, he rushed back into the examination room.

___________________________________

 _Weak Reek, Stupid Reek…_ Tucked beneath the table Reek berated himself. His troubled brain slogged even slower than usual under the sedative’s effects.

He knew enough to understand once Ramsay’s rage had dissipated a bit that the two alpha were continuing their important conversation. Limbs still heavy, his finger nubs clumsily rubbed his temples where his head ached the worst.

He smelled his master’s scents fear, fury, and more. Whatever was going on here was major. He’d tried to follow the conversation too but his battered mind just couldn’t keep up. There were two things he had managed to grasp, however.

Critical things.

The first was that somehow he and his owner had actually bonded. There was no more speculation. The mark was not a fluke. Ramsay was his alpha now. Really.

Tears gathered in Reek’s eyes remembering his pleading outside the brothel. Ramsay had let him know immediately when he’d first bought him that “Alpha” was a special title. One far too fine to fall from the slobbery tongues of creatures like himself.

But when he’d slipped in the alley and cried it out in his terror, it had felt so right in his mouth. He knew why now.

Reek sniffled.

Because this brought him to the other thing he was certain of… His alpha didn’t want him.

Tears fell from his eyes adding their stains to the concrete beneath him. Ramsay didn’t want him. Of course not. Why would he? He was worthless, broken, deformed, dumb…

He hadn’t always been though.

What was the word the doctor monster had used… He’d known it once… Compatible.

Reek tried to think as little as possible of his life prior to being a pet, but he couldn’t help but wonder if they’d met earlier… Would a heat/bond have found him then?

_Weak Reek, Bad boy… Not sweet Reek. Stupid. Fuckpet…_

Wiping his nose on the sleeve of his hoodie Reek blinked his wet eyes and realized both Ramsay and the doctor monster were gone. He was alone in the room.

A soft broken whimper escaped him.

His whole life he’d been conditioned to pine for an alpha. (Though obviously one less feral than Ramsay.) Over the past years he’d resigned himself to the fact he’d never have one. Now he discovered he did, only to be abandoned by him within the same day.

 _Not Ramsay’s Reek…_ Despite all the times Ramsay had said he was. _  
_

Those had just been lies to keep him settled until his alpha could be rid of him.

Reek toppled over onto his side and curled up into a ball, his fragile body wracked with violent sobs. And this was it. Ramsay, his true alpha, was no doubt selling him back to the brothel. Or maybe, even worse, just to the monster physician to experiment on, since he was clearly more defective now than before.

The thought of either fate was intolerable.

His damaged hands went to his bare throat as if they could hold back his building wails. Reek shifted where he laid and cold concrete kissed his cheek. He opened his eyes. His blurry gaze was caught by a glint among the remaining debris from the Alpha’s earlier scuffle still scattered on the floor.

It was a scalpel’s shine.

Reek rolled over and pulled himself forward. It was so hard to move. A skinny arm stretched out and he reached for it with trembling nubs. It took some work but he managed to pick it up.

The cool metal warmed quickly in his awkward grip. He stretched out his other arm. The loose sleeve of the hoodie slipped down to reveal a pale, hairless forelimb, mapped with blue veins and the marks of old scars.

Laying the scalpel blade where the palm and wrist met, Reek bit his lips. There were two other important things he was certain of. Without Ramsay he couldn’t, wouldn’t, endure any more.

And, the last hand that visited violence on him would be his own.

He closed his eyes against the bite of the blade and pulled it backwards.

Wet warmth flowed over chilled flesh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left.. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	8. Stitched together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Multiple mendings commence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My thanks to all you wonderful folks for all your comments and encouragements!
> 
> A special thanks to Malevolent_muse for all her help and inspiration on this chapter.

While the drug Qyburn pumped into Reek earlier muffled his conflicted thoughts, it didn’t have the same effect on his physical pain. The stroke of the scalpel and the bitter sting of it burst bright and metallic in Ramsay’s mind.

Without intending to, he shouted Reek’s name in his alpha voice and dashed into the room. The effect of his roar was immediate: the dropped blade sent skittering across stained concrete.

His bondmate lay curled up on his side under the table, paralyzed now, with the exception of the twitching fingers of one thin outstretched arm, its previously pale flesh painted crimson.

As many times as Ramsay had authored just such a scene, it had never had such an effect on him. His breath left him at the sight of the split in Reek’s skin that ran from wrist to elbow, laid open and wetly gaping, and the bright bloody puddle that bloomed beneath it.

“Fuck!” He dropped to his knees without hesitation and pulled Reek out from under the table and into his arms.

“Qyburn, get your skinny ass over here and help him!”

As soon as he laid Reek on the table, Ramsay stripped out of his overshirt and pressed it to the weeping wound. He looked up when the wide-eyed vet popped into the room.

“Whatever Reek is to me you better fucking fix him, or I’ll take the scalpel that wreaked this havoc and festoon this room with your innards!”

Ramsay had clearly found his wind again. In between his enraged words he huffed deep ragged breaths. Meanwhile, Reek’s eyes rolled back in his head. His teeth chattered.

Their distress scents mingled and married.

“He’s shocky,” Qyburn murmured, suddenly tableside, having taken Ramsay’s warning to heart. He produced a pair of scissors from one of his bottomless pockets and cut away the sleeve of Reek’s hoodie and the two shirts underneath it.

Wrapping a band of cut sleeve-fabric around the arm above Reek’s elbow, he cinched it down. “Tourniquet isn’t advisable, usually, but we need to get that bleeding stopped.”

Wiping away the slowing blood with more shirt sleeve, Qyburn sighed in relief as he probed the gash. “Lucky he couldn’t get a better grip on the blade. It’s deep in parts and messy. Nothing that’s going to need real surgery. Just a hell of a lot of stitches.”

He looked at Ramsay, “Maybe giving him his fingers back might not be such a good idea, eh?”

The growl he got in response had him paling.

“You, know you had a much better sense of humor before you were tamed.”

All saying this did was make Ramsay’s mad blue eyes narrow further. Qyburn gulped.

“I should put him out all the way so he sleeps through this.”

“NO!” Ramsay shouted, alpha creeping back into his tone. Seeing the way this made Reek shudder he lowered his voice. “Please… I need him awake. He passed out earlier today.

“I don’t think I can bear to go through that again.”

Hearing the broken desperation in Ramsay’s voice Qyburn rubbed the back of his neck with a bloody hand. ”Alright, well then, let me go draw a local for him and get my stitch kit. Then I’ll get this mess cleaned up.”

While the vet rummaged around, Ramsay dipped down to nuzzle the erratic pulse in Reek’s throat.

He whispered into his ear. “Don’t you dare think of leaving me, you little monster. Or I’ll come down to hell and drag you back myself.” He punctuated this by pressing a kiss to Reek’s clammy forehead.

The words permeated into Reek’s addled brain and he realized suddenly, his alpha was there. Ramsay hadn’t left him. Not yet, anyway. And from what Ramsay said, and that kiss…

The tiny warm peck felt like a claiming brand on Reek’s cold forehead… Maybe… Had he been wrong about his alpha’s intent earlier?

Searing pain radiating up his arm, sedative still thick in his veins, Reek inhaled a deep breath of alpha pheromones as Ramsay leaned over him. Ironically, after all the alpha’s unfamiliar recent scent combinations, his master’s, his mate’s, potent rage signature right now was actually incredibly soothing.

Reek drifted on this, feeling oddly peaceful. He laid back, letting things happen around him, tracking them only slightly in a haze of drugs and blood loss.

Ramsay left him only long enough to pull up a stool. Then he sat down beside him. Embracing him as best he could while he lay on the table. The alpha kept dipping his nose to snuffle at Reek’s neck. It was almost like he was the one desperate for comfort.

A blanket was thrown over Reek to stop his shivers. The mean doctor sat down next to him too and after a pinch, the pain in his arm went suddenly blank.

Reek stared up, eyes unfocused, at the ridiculous cruel taunt of a “hang in there!” poster of a kitten clinging to a rope Qyburn had long ago tacked to the ceiling. Every now and then his bleary eyes glanced down to check in on the march of black stitches advancing up his arm.

His portal to another plane was being closed.

He whined a bit at this until Ramsay shushed him. For better or worse, it seemed he was staying now.

Reek knew he was sure to be punished for trying to escape as he had, regardless of his reason for doing it. And after all the trouble he’d caused, he deserved it. He resigned himself to this.

He lay quiet then. Above him Qyburn murmured and Ramsay muttered. Reek caught the word “tamed” again, repeated more than once.

He caught other words too as the two Alpha’s bickered over him. He listened best he could until his exhaustion finally caught up with him and he fell asleep.

When he blinked awake again after this inadvertent slumber, he was conscious of being on Ramsay’s lap, held tightly to his chest.

Even if his Alpha was furious with him, he couldn’t help but rub his cheek against Ramsay’s bloodied shirt: he was so warm and solid. At this action, while Ramsay shifted, it seemed it was merely to support him better. There was no aggression in his hold, it was actually quite tender.

Reek couldn’t help making a little weepy sniffle.

How many years of his unhappy life had he dreamed of being held like this? He decided this moment was going to make whatever discipline followed almost worth it.

He was surprised when his thought of impending punishment didn’t stir any particular terror in him. There was no terrified whirring. Instead, his pet-ified omega brain remained...

Almost. Oddly. Peaceful.

Reek sighed in wonder at this. Then he went to rub his sleepy eyes but Ramsay held his arms still.

“Easy, sweet Reek. We’re almost done here.”

“Sweet Reek?” Reek weakly rasped,

“Mmmmmmm.” Ramsay merely hummed in soft agreement.

Stunned by the fact he would be called this after he’d clearly behaved so badly: damaging his master’s property, Reek looked up. Shocked also by how subdued Ramsay sounded, this was nothing compared to how tired the alpha looked.

As his vision cleared Reek glanced down from his owner’s weary face to where Ramsay held his hands and realized there were tubes in both of their arms. These each ran to a small machine, connecting them. Just as Reek’s eyes finally focused, the awful vet Qyburn came back into view.

The vet looked at the machine’s numbers. “That should about do it, I think. He’s got enough now he’ll be okay and you’re left with enough you should be able to make it home alright. If you’re careful.

“Lucky, along with the rest of you, your blood type is compatible too, eh?”

“Oh, for the gods... Shut up, with the quips, Q,” Ramsay growled as Qyburn pulled the needle from his arm and gave him a cotton ball to staunch the blood that welled from its puncture.

Reek winced when the needle was pulled from his arm too, the one not sheathed in pristine white gauze. Eyes on the crimson filled tubing he suddenly realized Ramsay had given his blood to him. His owner/mate’s essence was inside him now, pulsing through his veins.

Though the full significance of this seemed impossible to comprehend, the peaceful, settled sense he’d woken with grew even more profound.

“Bolton,” Qyburn disentangled the rubber tubing that had linked them together, “Your omega is awake now. And given all the chaos you’ve brought to my quiet clinic today, I think it’s best the pair of you leave before another unfortunate incident arises.”

Ramsay’s hand shot forward, and grabbed the sleeve of Qyburn’s lab coat.

“We have a deal though?”

“Yes,” Qyburn said with a shifty smile as he patted two vial shaped lumps in his breast pocket. “We have a deal. Go home and get some rest, you and your omega. And call me when you’re ready to talk more about patching him up further.

“As I said before, getting him into some better semblance of normalcy would be prudent if you have to take him to a regular doctor.”

Ramsay clambered up unsteadily with blanket-wrapped Reek still cradled in his arms.

“And you won’t breathe a word about his shift?”

Qyburn rolled his buggy eyes and snorted. “Don’t insult me, Bolton.

“Despite all your antics today, I’m in the business of keeping my mouth shut. Besides, I know you and I will be helping each other out in some interesting ways later…”

Ramsay grimaced thinking about what all this might entail, but remained silent. The transfusion left him dizzy and all his instincts were screaming for him to get Reek home and shut up safely in his lair before anything else awful happened.

Seeing him sway a bit, Qyburn offered, “You should head home. But before you do, you should stop and get some fluids for you both, I think.

“The thicker and sweeter the better,” the vet remarked as his eyes flickered back and forth between the pair of them. “Get it into you and wait about thirty minutes or so before you hit the freeway.

“And keep pushing liquids for the next twenty-four hours, at least. Make sure you eat enough too. Pack in some good calories.”

As they were headed out the brothel’s clinic door, Qyburn stopped Ramsay once more. He offered him a scrub top and, from a suspicious bin of used clothes, a well worn hoodie.

“So you don’t look like a pair of psycho killers." He laughed, "or at least one of you,” 

“Hilarious. You should do stand up,” Ramsay growled as he took the proffered clothes. He was about to extend a rare thank you but Qyburn stopped him.

“Don’t thank me. I’m adding them to the list of what you owe me, Bolton.”

With that and a leering wink, he nudged Ramsay and Reek out the door into the alley and closed it behind them.

When the fresh outside air hit Reek and he saw he was being carried back to Ramsay’s SUV he went weak with relief. At least, until he realized his alpha intended to settle him in the back seat.

Since he remained convinced he still surely had a punishment coming, he grew reckless and gave into his instincts, not wanting to be separated.

Wrapping his aching arms around Ramsay’s neck he clung like a monkey, weakly whining and making little hiccupping chitters.

He was surprised at the ease with which Ramsay relented. The alpha didn’t even make any threats. Just gave an annoyed grunt, closed the back door and opened the front door instead.

Finally, tucked up next to Ramsay, leaning against him in the front seat, had Reek softly purring. He could tell it calmed Ramsay too by the way his scent evened out, despite his soft grumbles.

Unable to help himself, Reek kept pushing his nose into Ramsay’s bloody shirt. The brothel’s scents were still unhappily there but fading and fortunately, Ramsay’s smell grew stronger as the minutes passed.

His alpha smelled so good. But also... different now somehow.

He peeked up, studying Ramsay’s profile, the determined set of his jaw. Car started, Ramsay had just shifted into reverse when Reek asked softly, “home?”

Blue eyes met his. “Yes. Home,” Ramsay sighed in agreement as though he wished they were there already.

Reek’s second question was even quieter. “Sorry… Sorry… Both? Reek ‘n Ramsay?”

There was a very odd sheen in Ramsay’s unblinking blue eyes. He turned his head and dipped it in Reek’s direction. Reek flinched but, once more, warm lips pressed to his forehead and Ramsay sighed again. The puff of his breath fluttered wispy bangs.

“Yes, you little idiot, both of us.”

A tiny, pleased chirp escaped from Reek. Ramsay drew back looking surprised.

His lips might have almost held the barest start of a smile, when Reek scent marked his shoulder with his cheek and hummed, “home… home… home…” as he snuggled back down again.

Ramsay snorted before schooling his face back to serious and he began backing them out of the alley.

Having been told they were going home, together, still exhausted, Reek closed his eyes, trusting his alpha to lead them back to the farmhouse. Once out of the alley, neither of them said a word as the SUV sped along the twists and turns of the district.

Five minutes of road humming under them, Ramsay breathed a new, heavy sigh of relief.

Reek raised his gauze-wrapped limb and gave his alpha’s arm little stub-finger pats to soothe until sleep took him again. They traveled quite a ways like that. Ramsay didn’t even bother turning on the radio, not wanting to disturb the dream-kneading hand that remained resting on his bicep.

The “tick-tick” of a blinker and a shift in speed roused Reek from a blessedly dreamless slumber. Ramsay was slowly steering the vehicle down a road in a nicer part of the city.

Reek’s brow furrowed. They were supposed to be going home: Ramsay had promised. But it appeared the Alpha had something else on his agenda first.

A few minutes later, they pulled into a small parking lot. It belonged to an ice cream stand, adjacent to a small park. Being well into the afternoon on a workday, the place was nearly deserted. At the moment the only people around were the shop’s attendants.

Parked a distance from the stand, Ramsay climbed out of the SUV and changed into the scrub top Qyburn gave him. After leaning into the open driver’s side window and ordering Reek to “stay”, he stalked over to the stand’s outside order window. A few minutes later, he returned with two white Styrofoam cups in hand.

“Open the door.”

Though his docked fingers fumbled with the handle, it didn’t take Reek long to unlatch the door and push it open.

“Can you manage to put the hoodie on that’s there in the seat next to you?”

Reek blinked a moment at the question, so different than Ramsay’s usual barked orders. But then he hurried to comply, wincing only slightly as he pulled the clean sweatshirt on over the bloody mess of his other shirts. Bigger even than the one Ramsay had put on him first, it hung almost to his sweat-clad knees.

“Okay, come on out.”

Ramsay frowned when Reek hung back. “Come on,” he urged again. “Why are you being suddenly stubborn?”

Reek stared at him with overlarge green eyes. His bandaged arm lifted and stubs brushed his neck.

“Sorry… Sorry…” Reek begged. “Collar please? Meek Reek, Good boy. Collar?”

Ramsay stood there stunned by the request. Yes, technically, pets weren’t allowed out in public without a collar and leash. But Reek wasn’t really a pet anymore. Anyone who saw his mate mark would know this.

“You don’t need…”

His eyes widened when he was cut off by a short flurry of unhappy omega chitters.

“You really want your collar on?”

Reek blushed red, ashamed of his outburst, but his eyes were teary with upset. He nodded.

Ramsay set the cups on the car roof and pulled Reek’s collar from his back pocket where he'd stuck it while at Qyburn’s place. Reek leaned forward eagerly while Ramsay buckled it around his neck. Once affixed, simultaneously they both exhaled a soft sigh of relief.

Now, feeling securely owned, Reek slid out of the car. He stood swaying, woozy. He tried to straighten and stand tall as Ramsay studied him.

“Hold these.” Ramsay grabbed the cups off the roof and held them out.

Reek extended both his mangled hands and took them. He gathered the cups into his arms and held them up against his chest. The chill seeped through the gauze of his throbbing stitched arm, soothing it.

Ramsay kept a grip on the top of straw punctured lids until he was sure Reek had the drinks secured. Still he warned, “careful don’t drop them.”

Leaning into the car, Ramsay pulled out the blanket before he shut the door and locked it. He flipped this over his shoulder. Reek made a surprised squeak when Ramsay then scooped him up into his arms and staggered out of the parking lot with him and into the grass.

“I want to go sit down where it’s quiet for a bit.”

Perplexed but nodding, Reek allowed himself to be carried, glad for the ride given his unsteady legs.

Once they were a sufficient distance from the parking lot, next to an outcropping of trees that provided them with relative privacy, Ramsay set Reek down. While Reek stood watching, he spread the stained blanket out on the grass and plopped down on it.

“Here,” Ramsay instructed, indicating he wanted him to sit down in the hollow of his legs. “Come rest with me.”

His hands encumbered by the cups, Reek shuffled over and settled awkwardly down between his alpha’s lean splayed thighs. Ramsay took one of the cups from him and began to suck at its straw. Lush lips pursed and pulling thoughtfully, he stared out onto the small pond thirty feet ahead of them.

Not knowing what to do next, Reek sat stiffly still and stared out too, switching between the clear blue sky above and the pond’s swimming ducks.

It was surreal. In all his months at Ramsay’s the only time he’d been outside was getting in and out of the man’s vehicle the day he’d arrived and today. The same with his years at the brothel.

But here he was, after teetering earlier on the precipice of the void. Not dead but alive, with the breeze kissing his face and the sun on his skin. And a big, warm alpha sitting peacefully behind him.

He tensed a moment when a large hand settled on his shoulder, but it seemed Ramsay only wanted to pull him so that his back rested against his flat belly and broad chest. Reek happily complied.

“Do you not like milkshakes?” Ramsay asked after a few more silent minutes passed. He nudged the cup still held in Reek’s now numb hands with his own shake’s.

“I got you vanilla and strawberry swirl since you seemed to like those strawberries we had for breakfast the other day.”

Reek tipped his head back and regarded Ramsay with nothing short of awe. Never once had he dared to think the cup he held might actually have been for him.

“For Reek?” He asked shyly, still unconvinced.

“Yes,” Ramsay prodded the cup upward toward his mouth. “Drink.”

Oh, how Reek wanted the milkshake so badly. It had been ages since he’d tasted such a treat. But he knew too he didn’t didn’t deserve it.

He shook his head sadly and held the cup out to Ramsay.

“What’s this?”

“Bad Reek,” Reek sniffled and hung his head. “Weak Reek. Bleedy Reek. Bad.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Below his tousled bangs Reek nodded.

“I suppose you should be punished then.”

Reek hunched waiting for the yells, the blows, to have his treat knocked from his hand.

Instead Ramsay set his own cup down so he could pull a little packet from his front jean pocket. He rattled it. “These are pain pills, Q gave me for your arm. For punishment you won’t get any.”

Having expected nothing for the throbbing ache in his arm in the first place, that hardly struck Reek as a punishment.

“But…” Ramsay started, looking oddly pensive after a quiet moment, “maybe it should be ‘bad Ramsay’ too. After all, I left you there when you were clearly frightened without telling you why, or that I was coming back.”

Reek peeked up, sure the alpha was teasing. When he saw how serious Ramsay's face was he gasped, shaken by such thought.

“So, maybe you should get half of one…” Ramsay snapped a pill in half. A tap to Reek’s nose had his mouth automatically falling open. Bitterness hit his tongue.

His head swum as he swallowed it.

He’d been taught early on in his brothel service that every fault was his. That whoever he belonged to, whether for five minutes or forever, was always in the right. So there was no way Ramsay could be bad, no matter how he behaved. He was Alpha, master, owner, and Reek, he was nothing.

“You’re not nothing, Reek.” Ramsay grumbled. He set a big hand around Reek’s damaged ones holding the cup. With the other he took the straw and pressed it to Reek’s mouth.

“You’re mine.

“And because you’re mine, you must never try and hurt yourself again. Or then I really will thrash you.”

Chapped lips brushed against the tip of the straw. Reek sucked it obediently in. The word “mine” caught him the same moment he took his first tentative slurp. They hit him both with an extraordinary sweetness and sent his senses reeling. He was so overwhelmed he choked a bit.

Ramsay wiped the bit of escaped strawberry from Reek’s lips and fed it back to him from his finger. The taste of alpha spice and berry sweetness set him purring.

Seeing his ecstatic expression and hearing his kittenish rumblings Ramsay snorted. He nosed into Reek’s hair and murmured. “You like that, huh?”

All Reek could do was nod and blush. His next few sips were tentative. Still not convinced this wasn’t some new terrible trick, he had to ask, “Ramsay’s Reek?”

“Yes.” Ramsay said simply. “Ramsay’s Reek.”

Maybe it was the sugar that made him bold or the memory of the word tamed, but Reek ventured next, “Reek’s Ramsay?”

He tensed when the body behind him suddenly stiffened. But after a minute Ramsay relaxed again and hummed.

“Say that again?”

Reek gulped but Ramsay smelled abnormally serene and he didn’t sound mad at all.

“Ramsay’s Reek?”

“Mmmmm, nice try.” There was a tiny bit of growl in Ramsay’s voice. “No. The other one.”

Reek trembled and squeaked out, “Reek’s Ramsay?”

“Reek’s Ramsay, huh?”

Ramsay picked his cup back up and took a long, hard pull on his shake. But it was Reek who shivered harder, hearing those words, in that order falling from his alpha’s mouth.

Ramsay stared back out over the pond where the ducks bobbed, eyes on the horizon. A bit of color had crept back into his transfusion pale cheeks.

“Maybe, hmm? I guess we’ll find out.”

There was no confession there. No promise either. But for Reek, it was more than enough. He settled back against Ramsay, his arm ached but maybe with his punishment of half a pill that would pass in a bit. More importantly, for the first time in a long time his heart didn’t ache at all.

He took another sip on his straw, ready to be filled with sweetness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll note there's another chapter added to the fic total: the boys went on so long I couldn't get everything into just this one.
> 
> A second special thanks to Abbeyjewel for her careful proofing.
> 
> It take a village to wrangle a fic! 
> 
> Speaking of... I will be adding more bits later. Are there things you'd like to see with this pair? Please let me know your thoughts.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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